BX  9843.P3S5  1853 
Sermons  of  theism,  atheism,  and  th 


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SERMONS 


T  H  E  I  S  M ,    A  T  11  E I  S  M , 


THE    POPULAR    THEOLOGY 


THEODORE     PAEKEE, 

MINISTER  OF  THE  TWENTT-EIGIITH  CONGKECATIOXAL  SOCIETY 
IK  BOSTON. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,    BROAVN    AND    COMPANY. 

1853. 


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Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congi-ess  in  the  year  1853,  by 

TIIEODOEE    PARKER, 

in  tlie  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  tlie  District  of  Massachusetts, 


CAMBRIDGE  : 

ALLEN     AND     FARNHAM,     PRINTERS, 
REMINGTON   STREET. 


KEY.    WILLIAM    11.    WHITE, 


AXD     THE 

REV.   GEORGE   FISKE, 

WITIf    GRATITUI^E    FOR   EARLY    IXSTRUCTIO^i    RECEIVED    AT 
0^  THEIR    HANDS, 


THIS    TOLLME    IS    DEDICATED 


THE   AUTHOR 


PREFACE 


The  present  volume  forms  part  of  a  long  series  of 
Sermons,  but  lias  a  certain  completeness  in  itself,  and  is, 
perhaps,  intelligible  Avitliout  reference  to  what  preceded  or 
followed.  Almost  the  whole  of  the  volume  is  printed  from 
the  notes  of  Mr.  Leighton,  an  accomplished  stenographer ; 
only  the  three  latter  sermons  were  written  out  by  myself. 
I  have  often  been  asked  to  repeat  this  portion  of  the  series, 
but  prefer  to  lay  it  before  a  larger  public  than  a  merely 
spoken  word  can  reach. 

Boston,  July  16th,  1853, 


A* 


CONTENTS 


PAGE. 

Introduction, ix 

» 

I. 

Or  Speculative  Atheism,  kegarded   as  a   Theory  of 

THE  Universe, 3 

II. 

Of  Practical  Atheism,  regarded   as  a  Principle   op 

Ethics, 39 

in. 

Of  the  Popular  Theology  of  Christendom,  regarded 

AS  A  Theory  of  the  Universe,        ....        85 

IV, 

Of  the  Popular  Theology  of  Christendom,  regarded 

AS  A  Principle  of  Ethics,        .        .        .        .        .128 

V, 

Of   Speculative^  Theism,  regarded  as   a  Theory  of 

THE  Universe, 170 


VIU  COJ^TENTS. 

VI. 

Of  Practical   Theism,    regarded    as   a  Principle    of 

Ethics, 207 

VII. 

Of    the    Fuxction    and    Influence    of    the    Idea    of 

I3IM0RTAL  Life, 248 

VIIL 

Of  the  Universal  Providence  of  God,  .        .        .      281 

IX, 

(Of    the    Economy    of    Pain    and    Misery   under    the 

Universal  Providence  of  God.    Part  I.       .        .315 

X. 

(Of    the    Economy    of    Pain    and    Misery   under    the 

Universal  Providence  of  God.    Part  IL     .        .      363 


INTRODUCTION. 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  THE  CONDITION  OF  CHRISTENDOM. 

At  Rome,  eighteen  centuries  ago  this  very  year,  Nero 
was  married  to  a  maiden  called  Octavia.  He  was  the  son 
of  Ahenobarbus  and  Agrippina ;  the  son  of  a  father  so 
abandoned  and  a  mother  so  profligate  that  when  congratu- 
lated by  his  friends  on  the  birth  of  his  first  child,  and  that 
child  a  son,  the  father  said,  what  is  born  of  such  a  father  as 
I,  and  such  a  mother  as  my  w^ife,  can  only  be  for  the  ruin 
of  the  State.  Octavia  was  yet  worse  born.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  Claudius  and  Messalina.  Claudius  was  the 
Emperor  of  Rome,  stupid  by  nature,  licentious  and  drunken 
by  long  habit,  and  infamous  for  cruelty  in  that  age  never 
surpassed  for  its  oppressiveness,  before  or  since.  Messalina, 
his  third  wife,  was  a  monster  of  wickedness,  who  had  every 
vice  that  can  disgrace  the  human  kind,  except  avarice  and 
hypocrisy :  her  boundless  prodigality  saved  her  from  avarice, 
and  her  matchless  impudence  kept  her  clean  from  hypocrisy. 
Too  incontinent  even  of  money  to  hoard  it,  she  was  so  care- 
less of  the  opinions  of  others  that  she  made  no  secret  of 
any  vice.     Her  name  is  still  the  catchword  for  the  most 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

loathsome  acts  that  can  be  conceived  of.  She  was  put  to 
death  for  attem|)ting  to  destroy  her  husband's  life  ;  he 
was  drunk  when  he  signed  the  warrant,  and  when  he  heard 
that  his  wife  had  been  assassinated  at  his  command  he  went 
to  drinkinj?  ao^ain. 

Agrippina,  the  mother  of  Nero,  and.  the  bitterest  enemy 
of  Messalina,  took  her  place  in  a  short  time  and  became  the 
fourth  wife  of  her  uncle  Claudius,  who  succeeded  to  the  last 
and  deceased  husband  of  Agrij^pina  only  as  he  succeeded 
to  the  first  Roman  king  —  a  whole  commonwealth  of  prede- 
cessors intervening.  Octavia,  aged  eleven,  was  already 
es2)0used  to  another,  who  took  his  life  when  his  bride's  father 
married  the  mother  of  Nero,  well  knowing  the  fate  that 
awaited  him.  Claudius,  repudiating  his  own  son,  adopted 
Nero  as  his  child  and  imperial  heir.  In  less  than  two 
years  Agrippina  poisoned  her  husband,  and  by  a  coup  d'etat 
put  Nero  on  the  throne,  who,  erelong,  procured  the  murder 
of  his  own  mother,  Seneca  the  philosopher  helping  him 
in  the  plot,  but  in  due  time  to  ftill  by  the  hand  of  the 
tyrant. 

Eighteen  centuries  ago  this  very  year,  Nero,  expecting  to 
be  emperor,  married  Octavia,  —  he  sixteen  years  old,  yet 
debauched  already  by  premature  licentiousness,  —  she  but 
eleven,  espoused  to  another  who  had  already  fallen  by  his 
own  hand,  bringing  calculated  odium  on  the  imperial  family  ; 
a  yet  sadder  fate  awaited  the  miserable  maid  thus  bartered 
away  in  infancy. 

This  marriage  of  the  Emperor's  adopted  son  with  his 
only  daughter  was  doubtless  thought  a  great  event.  Every 
body  knew  of  it :  among  the  millions  that  swarmed  in 
Rome,  probably  there  was  not  a  female  slave  but  knew  the 


INTRODUCTIOX.  XI 

deed.  Historians  in  their  gravity  paused  to  record  it ; 
poets,  doubtless,  with  the  customary  flattery  of  that  incon- 
stant tribe,  wrote  odes  on  the  occasion  of  tliis  shameless 
marriage  of  a  dissolute  boy  and  an  unfortunate  girl. 

The  same  year,  fifty-three  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  accord- 
ing to  the  most  ancient  chronological  canon  which  has  come 
down  to  us,  there  came  to  Rome  an  obscure  man  Saul  by 
name  which  he  had  altered  to  Paul ;  a  sailmaker,  as  it  seems, 
from  the  little  city  of  Tarsus  in  Cilicia.  Nobody  took  much 
notice  of  it.  Nay,  the  time  of  his  coming  is  quite  uncertain 
and  hard  to  ascertain  ;♦  and  it  appears  that  the  writer  of 
this  most  ancient  chronicle,  though  he  lived  sixteen  or  sev- 
enteen hundred  years  nearer  the  fact  than  we  do,  was  mis- 
taken, and  that  in  the  year  fifty-three  Paul  went  to  Corinth 
for  the  first  time  and  dwelt  there ;  and  eight  years  after,  in 
the  spring  of  the  year,  was  brought  a  prisoner  to  Rome. 
These  curiosities  of  chronology  show  how  unimportant  Paul's 
coming  was  thought  at  that  time.  The  marriage  of  a  disso- 
lute boy,  with  an  unfortunate  girl,  was  set  down  as  a  great 
thing,  while  the  coming  of  Paul  was  too  slight  a  circum- 
stance to  deserve  notice. 

He  came  from  a  hated  nation,  —  the  Jews  were  thought 
the  enemies  of  mankind,  —  he  was  a  poor  plebeian,  a 
mechanic,  and  lived  in  an  age  when  military  power  and 
riches  had  such  an  influence  as  never  before,  or  since.  He 
was  apparently  an  unlettered  man,  or  had  only  the  rough, 
narrow  culture  which  a  Hebrew  scholar  got  at  Tarsus  and 
Jerusalem.  He  had  little  eloquence;  "his  bodily  presence 
was  weak,  and  his  speech  contemptible."  He  came  to  the 
most  populous  city  in  the  world,  the  richest  and  the  wicked- 


Xll  INTRODUCTION. 

est.  Nero  and  Agrippina  were  tjpes  of  wealthy  and 
patrician  Rome ;  for  that  reason  it  is  that  I  began  by 
telling  their  story,  and,  though  aware  of  the  true  chro- 
nology, have  connected  this  atrocious  wedlock  with  the 
-coming  of  the  Apostle. 

The  city  was  full  of  soldiers ;  men  from  Parthia  and 
Britain,  who  had  fought  terrible  battles,  bared  their  scars  in 
the  Forum  and  the  Palace  of  the  Caesars.  Learned  men 
were  there.  Political  Greece  had  died  ;  but  Grecian  genius 
long  outlived  the  shock  which  overturned  the  state.  Of 
science  Greece  was  full,  and  her  learned  men  and  men 
well  born  with  genius  fled  to  Rome.  The  noble  minds  from 
that  classic  land  went  there,  full  of  thought,  full  of  eloquence 
and  song,  running  over  with  beauty.  Rough,  mountainous 
streams  of  young  talent  from  Spain  and  Africa  flowed  thith- 
er, finding  their  home  in  that  great  oceanic  city.  The  Sy- 
rian Orontes  had  emptied  itself  into  the  Tiber.  There 
•were  temples  of  wondrous  splendor  and  richness,  priests 
celebrated  for  their  culture  and  famed  for  their  long  descent. 
All  these  were  hostile  to  the  new  form  of  religion  taught  by 
Paul. 

But  the  popular  theology  was  only  mythology.  It  was 
separate  from  science,  alienated  from  the  life  of  the  people. 
The  temple  did  not  represent  philosophy,  nor  morality,  nor 
piety.  The  priests  of  the  popular  religion  had  no  belief  in 
the  truth  of  its  doctrines,  no  faith  in  the  elTicacy  of  its  forms. 
Religion  was  tradition  with  the  priest ;  it  was  police  with 
the  magistrate.  The  Roman  augurs  did  not  dare  look  each 
other  in  the  face  on  solemn  days,  lest  they  should  laugh 
out  right  and  betray  to  the  people  what  was  the  open  secret 
of  the  priest. 


INTRODUCTION.  xiii 

Everywhere,  as  n  man  turned  Lis  eye  in  Rome,  there  was 
riches,  everywhere  power,  everywhere  vice.  Did  I  say 
everywhere  ?  No ;  —  the  shadow  of  riches  is  poverty,  and 
there  was  such  poverty  as  only  St.  Giles's  Parish  in  Lon- 
don can  now  equal.  The  shadow  of  power  is  slavery ;  and 
there  was  such  slavery  in  Rome  as  American  New  Orleans 
and  Charleston  cannot  boast.  Did  I  say  there  wa»  vice 
everywhere  ?  No :  in  the  shadow  of  vice  there  always 
burns  the  still,  calm  flame  of  piety,  justice,  philanthropy ; 
that  is  the  light  which  goeth  not  out  by  day,  which  is  never 
wholly  quenched.  But  slavery  and  poverty  and  sin  were 
at  home  in  that  city,  —  such  slavery,  such  poverty  and  such 
sin  as  savage  lands  know  nothing  of.  If  we  put  together 
the  crime,  the  gluttony,  the  licentiousness  of  New  Orleans, 
New  York,  Paris,  London,  Vienna,  and  add  the  military 
power  of  St.  Petersburg,  we  may  have  an  approximate  idea 
of  the  condition  of  ancient  Rome  in  the  year  fifty-three  after 
Christ.  Let  none  deny  the  manly  virtue,  the  womanly 
nobleness,  which  also  found  a  home  therein ;  still  it  was  a 
city  that  was  going  to  destruction,  and  the  causes  of  its 
ruin  were  swiftly  at  work. 

Christianity  came  to  Rome  with  Paul  of  Tarsus.  The 
tidings  thereof  w^ent  before  him.  Nobody  knows  who 
brought  them  first.  It  was  a  new  "  superstition,"  not  much 
known  as  yet.  It  was  the  religion  of  a  "  blasphemer  "  who 
had  got  crucified  between  "  two  others,  malefactors."  Chris- 
tianity was  then  "  the  latest  form  of  infidelity."  Paul  him- 
self came  there  a  prisoner,  but  so  obscure  that  nobody  knows 
what  year  he  came,  how  long  he  remained,  or  what  his  fate 
was.  "  He  lived  two  years  in  his  own  hired  house,"  —  that 
B 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

is  the  last  historic  word  which  comes  down  to  us  of  the 
great  apostle.  Catholic  traditions  tell  us  of  missions  to 
various  places,  and  then  round  it  off  with  martyrdom. 
The  martyrdom  only  is  probable,  the  missions  obviously 
fictitious.  Probably  he  was  in  jail  to  the  end  of  his  days, 
when  the  headsman  ferried  that  great  soul  into  Heaven  ;  — 
and  v«ry  seldom  was  it,  so  it  seems,  that  he  took  over  so 
weighty  a  freight  as  Paul  made  for  that  bark.  The  sail- 
maker  brought  the  new  religion.  It  was  an  idea,  and  action 
also ;  belief  in  men  and  life  out  of  them.  It  had  nothing 
to  recommend  it,  only  itself  and  himself.  Paul  offered  no 
worldly  riches,  no  honor,  no  respectability.  A  man  who 
"joined  the  church"  then,  did  not  have  his  name  trumpeted 
in  the  newspapers;  did  not  get  introduced  to  reputable 
society;  did  not  find  his  honor  and  respectability  every- 
where enhanced  by  that  fact. 

Christianity  had  these  things  to  offer,  —  scorn,  loathing, 
contempt,  hatred  from  father  and  mother,  from  the  husband 
of  the  wife's  bosom, — for  probably  it  was  the  wife  that 
went  first,  it  is  commonly  so,  —  and  at  last  it  offered  a  cruel 
death.  But  it  told  of  a  to-morrow  after  to-day ;  of  a  law 
higher  than  the  statute  of  Nero  ;  of  one  God,  the  Father  of 
all  men  ;  of  a  kingdom  of  Heaven,  where  all  is  sunlight  and 
peace  and  beauty  and  triumph.  Paul  himself  had  got 
turned  out  of  the  whole  Eastern  world,  and  the  founder  of 
this  scheme  of  religion  had  just  been  hanged  as  a  blas- 
phemer. Christianity  was  treason  to  the  Hebrew  State  ;  to 
the  Roman  Church  the  latest  form  of  infidelity. 

Doubtless .  there  were  great  errors  connected  with  the 
Christian  doctrine.  One  need  only  read  the  epistles  of 
Paul  to  know  that.     But  there  were  great  truths.     The 


INTRODUCTION,  XV 

oneness  of  God,  tlie  brotlierliood  of  men,  tlie  soul's  immor- 
tality, tlie  need  of  a  virtuous,  blameless,  brave  life  on  earth, 
—  these  were  the  great  truths  of  Christianity;  and  they 
were  set  off  by  a  life  as  great  as  the  truths,  a  life  of  brave 
w^ork  and  manly  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice. 

The  early,  nay,  the  earliest  Christians  had  many  an  error. 
How  does  wheat  grow  ?  With  manifold  straw ;  and  there 
are  whole  cart-loads  of  straw  for  a  single  sack  of  wheat 
corn.  The  straw  is  needful;  not  a  grain  of  corn  could 
grow  without  it ;  by  and  by,  it  litters  the  horses,  and  pres- 
ently rots  and  fertilizes  the  ground  whence  it  came.  But 
the  grain  lives  on;  and  is  seed-corn  for  future  genera- 
tions, or  bread-corn  to  feed  the  living. 

Christianity  as  an  idea  was  far  in  advance  of  Judaism 
and  Hebraism.  As  a  life  it  transcended  every  thing  which 
the  highest  men  had  dreamed  of  in  days  before.  Men  tried 
to  put  it  down,  crucified  Jesus,  stoned  his  disciples,  put  them 
in  jail,  scourged  them,  slew  them  with  all  manner  of  torture. 
But  the  more  they  blew  the  fire,  the  more  swiftly  it  burned. 
"Water  the  ground  with  valiant  blood,  the  young  blade  of  hero- 
ism springs  up  and  blossoms  red :  the  maiden  blooms  white  out 
of  the  martyr  blood  which  her  mother  had  shed  on  the 
ground  ;  and  there  is  a  great  crop  of  hairy  men  full  of  valor. 
Christians  smiled  when  they  looked  the  rack  in  the  face  ; 
laughed  at  martyrdom,  and  said  to  the  tormentors,  "  Do  you 
want  necks  for  your  block?  Here  are  ours.  Betwixt  us 
and  Heaven  there  is  only  a  red  sea,  and  the  axe  makes  a 
bridge  wide  enough  for  a  soul  to  go  over.  Exodus  out  of 
Egypt  is  entrance  to  the  promised  land.  Fire  is  a  good 
chariot  for  a  Christian  Elias." 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

In  a  few  liundred  years  that  sailmaker  had  swept  Rome 
of  Heathenism :  not  a  temple  remained  Heathen.  Even 
the  statues  got  converted  to  Christianity,  and  Minerva 
became  the  Virgin  Mary ;  Venus  took  the  vow  and  was  a 
Magdalene ;  Olympian  Jove  was  christened  Simon  Peter ; 
everybody  sees  at  Rome  a  bronze  statue  of  Jupiter, 
older  than  Paul's  time,  which  is  now  put  in  the  great 
cathedral  and  baptized  Simon  Peter;  and  thousands  of 
Catholics  kiss  the  foot  of  what  was  once  "  Heathen  Jove." 
The  gods  of  Rome  gave  way  to  the  carpenter  of  Naza- 
reth ;  he  was  called  God.  The  Christian  ideas  and  great 
Christian  life  of  Paul  of  Tarsus  put  all  Olympus  to  rout. 

Then  in  thirteen  or  fourteen  hundred  years  more  there 
slowly  got  built  up  the  most  remarkable  scheme  of  theology 
that  the  world  ever  saw.  Hebraism  went  slowly  down  ; 
Heathenism  went  slowly  down.  Barbarism,  a  great  storm 
from  the  North,  beat  on  the  roof  of  the  Christian  house, 
and  it  fell  not;  — No,  barbarism  ran  off  from  the  eaves  of 
the  Christian  church  to  water  the  garden  of  Italy,  Spain, 
France,  Germany,  England ;  they  were  blessed  by  that  river 
of  God  which  fell  from  the  eaves. 

But  Hebraism,  Heathenism,  Barbarism  —  as  forms  of 
religion  —  did  not  die  all  at  once,  they  are  not  yet  wholly 
dead.  No  one  of  them  was  altogether  a  mistake.  Each  of 
them  had  some  truth,  some  beauty,  which  mankind  needed, 
and  there  they  must  stand  face  to  face  with  Christianity 
till  it  has  absorbed  all  of  their  excellence  to  itself:  then 
they  will  perish.  Individual  freedom  was  the  contribution 
which  German  Barbarism  brought,  and  we  have  got  much 
of  that  enshrined  in  our  trial  by  jury,  representative  democ- 


INTRODUCTION.  xvii 

racy,  and  a  hundred  other  forms.  Deep  faith  in  God  and 
fidelity  to  one's  OAvn  conscience,  —  these  are  the  great 
things  which  Moses  and  Samuel  and  David  and  Esaias  and 
Ezra  taught ;  and  accordingly  the  Old  Testament  lies  on 
every  pulpit  lid  in  all  Christendom  to  this  day,  and  will  not 
sink  because  it  has  got  those  excellences.  Heathenism  had 
science,  beauty,  law,  power  of  organization ;  they  also  must 
be  added  to  the  Christian  civilization  before  Heathenism  goes 
to  its  rest.  We  have  not  got  all  the  good  from  Heathenism 
yet;  and  accordingly  the  superior  culture  of  Christen- 
dom is  based  on  Greek  and  Roman  classics :  Fathers  send 
their  boys  to  the  schools  of  Christendom,  that  they  may 
learn  from  the  Heathen ;  that  they  may  acquire  strength 
of  reasoning  from  Aristotle  and  Plato,  the  bravery  of  elo- 
quence from  Cicero  and  Demosthenes,  and  the  beauty  of 
literary  art  from  Homer  and  Horace  and  Sophocles  and 
JEschylus,  and  that  mighty  army  of  genius  whose  trumpets 
stir  the  world.  From  many  a  clime,  for  many  an  age,  do 
"  pilgrims  pensive,  but  unwearied,  throng "  to  Athens  and 
Rome,  to  study  the  remains  of  ancient  art;  remnants  of 
temples  are  brought  over  the  sea  to  every  Christian  land,  to 
bless  the  Christian  heart  with  Pagan  beauty.  Patient  man- 
kind never  loses  a  useful  truth. 

It  is  curious  to  look  and  see  how  little  notice  was  taken 
of  Christianity  coming  to  Rome.  The  men  of  pleasure 
knew  nothing  of  the  strife  betwixt  the  old  and  new  in  Paul's 
time ;  the  political  economists  of  that  day,  as  it  seems,  fore- 
saw no  productive  power  in  Christianity;  the  politicians 
took  little  notice  thereof,  till  Nero  sought  to  cut  off  the 
neck  of  Christendom  at  one  blow.     A  historian  —  Roman 


XVIU  INTRODUCTION. 

all  through,  m  his  hard  powerful  nature,  "vvith  masterly 
Greek  culture,  —  spoke  of  Christianity  as  "  that  detestable 
superstition,"  which,  with  otliir  mischiefs,  had  flowed  down 
into  Rome,  the  common  sink  of  all  abominations.  Sour 
Juvenal  gave  the  new  religion  a  wipe  with  his  swift  lash, 
dipping  it  first  in  bitter  ink.  Pliny  the  younger  wrote  a 
line  to  the  emperor,  asking  how  he  should  treat  these  pestilent 
fellows,  the  Christians,  who  are  not  afraid  to  die.  This  is 
all  the  notice  literary  Rome  took  of  Christianity  for  a  cen- 
tury or  so.  Men  knew  not  the  force  which  was  going  to 
baptize  Pagan  Rome  with  the  Christian  name.  Yet  in  their 
time,  while  the  volujDtuous  were  seeking  for  a  new  pleasure, 
while  the  Stoics  and  Epicureans  were  doubting  which  was 
the  chief  good,  while  politicians  were  busy  with  troops  and 
battles,  —  there  came  silently  into  Rome  a  power  which 
shook  Heathenism  down  to  the  dust ;  and  the  great  battle 
betwixt  new  and  old  took  place,  and  they  knew  it  not.  So 
•an  old  story  tells  that  when  Rome  and  Africa  crossed  swords 
in  great  battle  on  Italian  soil,  they  fought  with  such  violence 
■and  ardor,  that  while  an  earthquake  came  and  shook  down 
a  neighboring  city  they  kej^t  fighting  on,  and  knew  only 
their  own  convulsion.  So  in  the  fray  of  pain  and  pleasure, 
the  great  earthquake  which  threw  down  the  Hebrew  and 
Pagan  Theology  "  reeled  unheededly  away." 

Now  old  Rome  is  buried  twenty  feet  thick  with  modern 
Rome;  the  civilization  of  Europe  is  Christian,  —  all  but  a 
corner  of  it  where  the  Crescent  eclipses  the  Cross.  Nay,  in 
London  and  Boston  and  New  York  is  a  society  of  "  unsocial 
Britons  divided  from  all  the  world,"  which  spreads  abroad 
ithe  words  of  Paul  and  of  Jesus,  and  in  twenty  years  has 
itranslated  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  the  epistles  of  Paul  into 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

one  hundred  and  forty-seven  different  tongues,  and  spread 
them  amongst  men  from  the  Thames  to  the  "  fabulous  Ily- 
daspes  ; "  yea,  from  one  end  of  the  workl  to  the  other.  In 
countries  aL'ke  unknown  to  the  science  of  Strabo  and  Phito's 
dream,  the  words  of  these  two  Hebrews  have  found  a  home  : 
and  now  two  hundred  and  sixty  milUons  of  men  worship 
the  Crucified  as  God.  Not  a  great  city  all  Europe  through, 
but  has  a  great  church  dedicated  to  that  sailmaker  of  Tar- 
sus, whose  journey  to  Rome  was  so  significant  and  so 
unchronicled. 

What  power  there  must  have  been  in  the  ideas  and  the 
life  of  those  men,  to  effect  such  a  conquest  in  such  a  time  ! 
It  is  no  wonder  that  many  ordinary  men,  who  know  Chris- 
tianity by  rote  and  heroism  by  hearsay,  and  who  think  that 
to  join  a  fashionable  church  is  "  to  renounce  the  world,"  — 
it  is  no  wonder  that  they  think  Christianity  spread  miracu- 
lously, that  God  wrote  a  truth  and  sowed  Christianity  broad- 
cast and,  if  men  would  not  take  it  without,  He  harrowed  it 
into  them  by  miracle.  Judging  from  their  consciousness, 
what  is  there  that  they  know  which  could  explain  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  and  the  heroism  of  a  man  laying  his  head, 
and  his  wife's  and  children's  heads,  on  the  block  for  a  con- 
scientious conviction?  Doubtless  they  are  just  and  true  to 
what  is  actual  in  themselves  in  believing  that  Christianity 
spread  by  miracle ;  and  if  a  man  has  not  soul  enough  to 
trust  that  soul,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  he  may  think  that  every 
great  truth  came  by  miracle.  An  Esquimaux  would  sup- 
pose that  a  railroad  car  went  miraculously. 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

Eighteen  hundred  years,  with  threescore  generations  of 
men,  have  passed  by  since  Paul  first  went  to  Rome.  What 
a  change  since  then !  It  is  worth  while  to  look  at  the  eccle- 
siastical condition  of  Christendom  at  this  day.  The  Chris- 
tian Church  has  very  great  truths,  which  will  last  forever. 
But  as  a  whole  it  seems  to  me  that  at  this  day  the  Christian 
Church  is  in  a  state  of  decay.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
Religion  decays,  —  piety  and  morality :  the  sun  will  fade 
out  of  the  heavens  before  they  perish  out  of  man's  heart. 
But  the  power  of  that  institution  which  is  called  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  the  power  of  the  priesthood  of  the  Christian 
Church,  —  that  is  assuredly  in  a  state  of  decay.  It  has 
separated  itself  from  new  science,  the  fresh  thought  of  man- 
kind ;  from  new  morality,  the  fresh  practical  life  of  mankind ; 
from  new  justice  ;  from  new  philanthropy ;  from  new  piety. 
It  looks  back  for  its  inspiration.  Its  God  is  a  dead  God  ; 
its  Christ  is  a  crucified  Christ ;  all  its  saints  are  dead  men : 
its  theology  is  a  dead  science,  its  vaunted  miracles  only  of 
old  time,  not  new.  Paul  asked  for  these  three  things,  — 
liberty,  equality,  brotherhood.  Does  the  Christian  Church 
ask  for  any  one  of  the  three?  It  does  not  trust  human 
nature  in  its  normal  action ;  does  not  look  to  the  human 
mind  for  truth,  nor  the  human  conscience  for  justice,  nor  the 
human  heart  and  soul  for  love  and  ftiith.  It  does  not  trust 
the  living  God,  now  revealing  himself  in  the  fresh  flowers 
of  to-day  and  the  fresh  consciousness  of  man.  It  looks 
back  to  some  alleged  action  in  the  history  of  mankind,  count- 
ing the  history  of  man  better  than  man's  nature.  It  looks 
back  to  some  alleged  facts  in  the  history  of  God,  counting 
those  fictitious  miracles  as  greater  than  the  nature  of  God ; 
He  has  done  his  best,  spoken  for  the  last  time  ! 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI 

In  all  tliis  tlie  ^Yllole  Christian  Churcli  agrees,  and  is 
unitary,  and  there  is  no  discord  betwixt  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant. But  they  differ  in  respect  to  the  things  to  which 
they  pay  supreme  and  sovereign  homage.  The  Catholic 
worships  the  Church:  that  is  infallible,  with  its  biblical 
and  extra-biblical  tradition,  and  its  inspiration.  The  Roman 
Church  is  the  religion  of  the  Catholic.  He  must  necessarily 
be  intolerant.  Two  writers  prominent  in  the  Catholic  Churcli 
of  America  within  the  last  few  months  have  declared  that 
the  Catholic  Church  is  just  as  intolerant  as  she  always  w^as, 
and  as  soon  as  she  gets  power  there  shall  be  no  more  free- 
dom of  thought  and  speech  in  the  new  continent ;  she  only 
waits  for  a  hand  to  clutch  the  sword  and  put  Protestantism 
to  death.  This  comes  unavoidably  from  her  position.  She 
must  be  sure  that  everybody  else  is  wrong. 

The  Protestants  worship  the  Bible,  with  its  Old  Tes- 
tament and  New ;  that  is  infallible.  The  Bible  is  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Protestants,  as  the  Church  is  the  rehgion  of 
the  Catholics,  and  the  Koran  of  the  Mahometans.  This 
is  the  ultimate  source  of  religious  doctrine,  the  ultimate 
standard  of  religious  practice.  Here  the  Protestant  sects 
are  unitary;  even  the  Universalists  and  Unitarians  agree 
in  this  same  thing,  or  profess  to  do  so. 

Then  the  Protestants  differ  about  the  doctrines  of  that 
infaUible  word ;  and  so  while  one  hand  of  Protestantism  is 
clenched  on  the  Bible,  the  other  is  divided  into  a  great  many 
fingers,  each  pointing  to  its  own  creed  as  the  infallible  inter- 
pretation of  the  infallible  word :  the  one  pencil  of  white 
Protestant  sunshine,  drawn  from  the  Bible,  is  broken  by  the 
historic  prism  into  manifold  rays  of  antithetic  color. 


XXll  INTRODUCTION. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  for  the  Christians  as  a  whole  to 
maintain  that  they  have  nothing  to  learn  from  the  Hebrews, 
the  Heathen, the  Buddhists  and  the  Mahometans;  —  though 
the  Christians  are  in  many  respects  superior  to  these  other 
sects  of  the  world,  yet  they  have  much  to  teach  us.  It  is  a 
mistake  for  the  Protestant  to  say  he  has  nothing  to  learn 
from  the  Catholic:  the  Catholic  —  though  far  behind  the 
Protestant  —  has  many  things  to  impart  to  us.  And  it  is  a 
mistake  for  the  Unitarian,  or  Universalist,  to  declare  that  he 
has  nothing  to  learn  from  the  Trinitarian  and  Partialist. 
As  yet  no  one  of  these  great  world  sects.  Christian,  Heathen, 
Hebrew,  Buddhist,  Mahometan,  has  the  whole  truth ;  and 
an  Christianity  no  one  sect  has  the  whole  of  Christian  truth. 

But  the  Christian  churches  have  broken  with  science,  and 
are  afraid  of  new  thought.  This  is  somewhat  less  true  of 
the  Protestant  than  of  the  Catholic  priesthood.  They 
have  broken  also  with  fresh  morality,  and  are  afraid  of  that. 
And  so  the  Christian  Church  to-day  is  very  much  in  the 
same  condition  that  Heathenism  and  Judaism  were  at  the 
time  when  Paul  first  went  to  Pome. 

Nearly  twelve  centuries  ago  the  subtle  Grecian  intellect 
separated  from  the  practical  sense  of  the  western  world,  and 
for  more  than  eight  hundred  years  there  were  two  Christian 
churches,  the  Greek  and  the  Latin.  Three  hundred  years 
ago  a  deadly  blow  was  struck  at  the  unity  of  the  Latin 
Church.  Since  then  there  have  been  three  Christian 
churches,  the  Greek,  the  Catholic,  and  the  Protestant ;  the 
two  former  only  conservative,  the  latter  also  progressive, 
but  not  progressive  in  orthodoxy,  progressive  only  by  heresy, 
—  for  the  church  carefully  cuts  off  the  top  of  its  own  tree 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI II 

as  soon  as  it  is  found  to  have  new  and  indepcMident  life  in 
it;  it  falls  to  the  ground,  and  grows  up  a  new  tree.  The 
Catholic  church  cut  off  the  Protestants ;  in  the  Protestant 
church  the  Trinitarians  cut  off  the  Unitarians  ;  and  now 
the  Unitarians  seek  to  cut  off  those  who  have  newer  life 
than  theirs,  newer  blossoms. 

In  the  Christian  church  there  are  many  churches.  But 
there  is  not  one  that  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  civili- 
zation of  the  world  which  Paul  bore  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago.  He  looked  forward ;  they  look  back.  He  asked  lib- 
erty of  thought  and  speech ;  they  are  afraid  of  both.  There 
is  not  a  Christian  government  which  has  not  some  statute 
forbidding  freedom  of  thought  and  speech.  Even  on  the 
statute  books  of  Massachusetts  there  slumbers  a  law  pro- 
hibiting a  man  to  speak  lightly  of  any  of  the  doctrines  in 
this  blessed  Bible;  and  it  is  not  twenty  years  since  a 
magistrate  of  this  State  asked  the  grand  jury  of  a 
county  to  find  a  true  bill  against  a  learned  Doctor  of  Divin- 
ity, who  had  written  an  article  proving  there  was  no  prophesy 
in  the  Old  Testament  which  pointed  a  plain  finger  to  the 
person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

All  over  Europe  religion  is  supported  by  the  state,  by 
the  arm  of  the  law.  The  clergy  wish  it  to  be  so,  and  they 
say  Christianity  would  fail  if  it  were  not.  Hence  come  the 
costly  national  churches  of  Europe,  wherein  the  priest  sits 
on  the  cartridge  box,  supported  by  bayonets,  a  drum  for  his 
sounding-board,  and  preaches  in  the  name  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  having  cannon  balls  to  enforce  his  argument.  What 
a  contrast,  between  the  national  churches  of  Russia,  Austria, 
Prussia,  England,  and  the  first  church  which  Paul  gathered 


XXIV  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

in  his  prison  house,  where  he  preached  ^vith  his  left  hand 
chained  to  a  soldier's  right  hand,  "  his  bodily  presence 
weak,  and  his  speech  contemptible." 

But  there  has  been  a  great  and  rapid  development  of 
humanity  since  Paul  first  came  to  Italy.  What  a  change  in 
agriculture,  mechanic  art,  commerce,  war,  in  education, 
politics !  "What  new  science,  new  art,  new  literature  has 
sprung  up  !  How  the  world's  geography  has  changed,  from 
Eratosthenes  to  Ritter !  But  the  interior  geography  of 
man  has  altered  yet  more.  The  ancient  poles  are  now  in 
the  modern  equator.  Compare  the  governments  then  and 
now;  the  wars  of  that  period;  the  condition  of  the  people. 
The  peasant  was  everywhere  a  slave  at  that  time.  Now 
slavery  has  fled  to  America  —  she  alone  of  all  Christendom 
fosters  in  her  bosom  that  odious  snake  which  has  stung  and 
poisoned  so  many  a  departed  State.  Compare  the  condition 
of  woman.  The  change  has  been  immense.  The  compass 
gave  mankind  America ;  gunpowder  made  a  republic  possi- 
ble ; —  it  could  not  have  been  without  that;  —  the  print- 
ing press  made  education  possible  to  everybody.  Steam 
makes  it  easy  for  a  nation  to  secure  the  material  riches 
which  are  indispensable  to  civilization,  and  yet  leave  time 
for  culture  in  the  great  mass  of  men.  How  have  the  hu- 
manities gone  forward,  —  freedom,  education,  temperance, 
chastity;  concern  for  the  poor,  the  weak,  the  abandoned, 
the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  dumb  ?  Once  the  Christian  Church 
fostered  the  actual  humanities  of  the  times.  There  was 
not  a  temperance  society  in  the  world ;  the  Church  was  the 
temperance  society.  There  was  not  a  peace  society,  the 
Church  was  the  peace  society  :  not  an  education  society ;  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV 

Church  opened  her  motherly  arms  to  many  a  poor  man's 
son  who  had  talent,  and  gave  him  education  ;  and  he  walked 
through  the  cathedral  door  into  the  college,  thence  to  the 
great  mountain  of  the  world  and  climbed  as  high  as  he  could 
get.  Now  as  the  Church  is  in  the  process  of  decay  we  need 
special  missionary  societies,  societies  for  preventing  drunk- 
enness and  every  vice.  The  function  of  the  ancient  Church 
has  passed  to  other  hands.  She  teaches  only  from  memory 
of  times  Rng  past.  The  national  churches  apologize  for  the 
national  sins  and  defend  them.  In  Europe  the  established 
clergy  are  seldom  friendly  to  any  movement  for  the  benefit 
of  mankind.  In  America  it  is  they  who  are  eminent  sup- 
porters of  every  public  enormity  which  the  nation  loves,  will- 
ing to  send  their  mother  into  slavery,  pressing  the  Bible 
into  the  ranks  of  American  sin. 

The  Christian  Church  early  departed  from  the  piety  and 
morality  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Taken  as  a  whole  it  has 
made  some  great  errors  and  is  now  suffering  the  penalty 
thereof.  It  has  taught  that  God  was  finite,  and  not  infinite ; 
that  man's  nature  was  a  mistake,  a  nature  which  could  not 
be  trusted;  it  has  put  fictitious  miracles  before  real  law,  and 
brought  the  heretic  philosopher  to  confess  that  the  Church 
was  right,  though  the  earth  did  still  move ;  it  has  taught 
that  religion  was  chiefly  to  save  mankind  from  the  wrath  of 
God  in  the  next  world,  not  to  bless  us  here  on  earth. 

The  Christian  churches  neglect  the  evils  of  their  own 
time.  To  judge  from  the  publications  that  have  been  sent 
forth  by  the  American  churches  in  the  last  twenty  years,  — 
the  tracts  of  the  Orthodox,  Baptists,  Methodists,  Unitarians, 
—  what  would  a  stranger  suppose  was  the  great  sin  of 
America  at  this  day  ?  He  might  read  them  all  through  and 
C 


XXVI  IXTRODUCTION. 

scarcely  conjecture  that  tliere  was  a  drunkard  in  the  land ; 
he  would  never  think  there  was  any  political  corrujotion  in 
the  country;  he  would  suppose  we  had  most  of  all  to 
fear  from  doubt  of  theological  doctrines ;  he  would  not  sup- 
pose that  there  were  as  many  slaves  in  America  to-day  as 
there  are  church  members.  Why  is  this?  Because  the 
churches  have  concluded  that  it  is  the  function  of  religion 
to  save  the  soul  from  the  wrath  of  God ;  not  to  put  down 
great  sins  here  on  earth,  and  make  mankind  bettef^and  men 
better  off.  These  mistakes  are  the  reason  why  the  Chris- 
tian Church  is  in  this  process  of  decay. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  separated  his 
thought  from  the  new  science  of  the  age,  and  said  "  Do  not 
think ; "  or  that  he  separated  his  religion  from  the  new  mo- 
rality of  the  age,  and  said,  "  Never  reform  a  vice,  oh !  ye 
children  of  the  Kingdom ! "  He  laid  his  axe  at  the  root  of 
the  sinful  tree  and  sought  to  hew  it  down.  "With  him  the 
problem  was  to  separate  religious  ideas  and  life  from  organi- 
zations that  would  not  admit  of  a  new  growth  ;  to  put  his 
new  wine  into  new  bottles.  "With  Luther  there  was  the  same 
problem.  He  endeavored  to  make  new  ecclesiastical  rai- 
ment for  mankind,  tired  of  attempts  to  mend  and  wear  the 
old  and  ill-fitting  clothes  of  the  Church  which  became  only 
worse  for  the  botching.  In  the  present  time  there  is  the 
same  problem:  to  gather  from  the  past,  from  the  Bible, 
from  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches,  from  Jew  and 
Gentile,  Buddhist,  Brahman,  and  Mahometan,  every  old 
truth  which  they  have  got  embalmed  in  their  precious  trea- 
suries ;  and  then  to  reach  out  and  upwards  towards  God,  and 
get  every  new  truth  that  we  can,  and  join  all  these  together 
into  a  whole  of  theological  truth  —  then  to  deepen  the  con- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXVU 

sciousness  of  God  in  our  own  soul,  and  make  the  Absolute 
Religion  the  daily  life  of  men. 


Let  the  word  Philosophy  stand  for  the  whole  sum  of 
human  knowledge,  and  be  divided  into  five  great  depart- 
ments, or  sciences,  namely  :  Mathematics,  treating  of  quan- 
tity and  the  relations  thereof;  Physics,  including  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  statical,  dynamical  and  vital  forces  of  matter, 
—  mechanics,  chemistry,  and  physiology  in  its  various 
departments,  as  it  relates  to  the  structure  and  action  of  the 
material  world  as  a  whole,  or  to  any  of  its  several  parts, 
mineral,  vegetable,  or  animal ;  History  embracing  the 
actions  of  man  in  all  his  internal  complexity  of  nature  and 
in  all  his  external  complications  of  movement,  individual  or 
collective ;  Psychology,  which  includes  all  that  belongs  to 
human  consciousness,  instinctive,  reflective,  and  volitive  — 
intellectual,  moral,  affectional,  and  religious ;  and  Theology, 
which  treats  of  God  and  his  relations  to  matter  and  man. 

The  progressive  welfare  of  man  demands  a  free  develop- 
ment in  all  these  five  departments  of  activity.  All  these 
sciences  are  equally  the  productions  of  the  human  spirit  and 
equally  amenable  to  the  mind  of  man,  which  collects, 
classifies  and  studies  both  facts  of  observation  and  of  con- 
sciousness. 

To  make  a  special  application  of  this  doctrine  —  the  reli- 
gious w^elfare  of  man  requires,  as  its  condition,  freedom  to 
study  the  facts  of  observation  and  consciousness,  and  to 
form  such  a  scheme  of  History,  Psychology,  and  Theology, 
as  will  correspond  to  his  general  spiritual  development  and 
his  special  religious  development.     If  a  man,  a  nation,  or 


XXVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

mankind,  lacks  this  freedom  and  accepts  such  a  scheme  of 
these  sciences  as  does  not  fit  his  spiritual,  or  religious  condi- 
tion, then  there  is  a  contradiction  in  his  consciousness;  and 
there  is  no  peace  until  he  has  cast  out  the  discordant  element 
and  so  estabhshed  unity. 

At  the  present  day  in  Protestant  Christendom,  philoso- 
ophers  study  the  first  four  disciplines  with  entire  freedom. 
No  mathematician  feels  bound  to  stop  where  Archimedes, 
Newton,  or  La  Place,  finished  his  career;  no  naturalist 
checks  his  steeds  at  the  goal  set  up  by  Von  Buch,  or  Hippo- 
crates ;  the  historians  and  metaphysicians  voyage  beyond 
the  Hercules'  Pillars  of  Thucydides  and  Aristotle,  not  fear- 
ing to  sail  the  seas  with  God.  It  is  universally  admitted 
by  the  students  of  truth  that  all  these  sciences  are  progres- 
sive, amenable  to  perpetual  revision ;  and  that  in  all  of 
them  the  human  mind  is  the  final  umpire.  The  inquirer 
looks  for  the  facts,  their  law,  their  meaning  and  their  use. 
There  is  no  artificial  norm  established  beforehand  to  which 
the  mathematician,  naturalist,  historian,  or  metaphysician 
must  make  all  things  agree.  There  is  no  Procrustes'  bed 
in  any  of  these  four  sciences  Avhereon  to  torture  ideas. 

In  Catholic  countries  the  case  is  often  different ;  the 
Koman  church  hinders  the  progress  of  each  of  these  sci- 
ences —  even  the  Mathematics  so  far  as  that  treats  of  the 
relation  of  quantities,  as  the  Earth -and  Sun  for  example 
—  by  prohibiting  freedom  of  thought  and  speech;  this 
Church  has  established  its  own  artificial  norm,  the  standard 
measure  of  all  science. 

In  Protestant  countries,  it  is  commonly  thought,  or  at 
least  alleged,  that  Theology  is  an  exception  to  the  general 
rule  which  controls  the  other  sciences :  that  it  is  not  pro- 


INTRODUCTION.  Xxix 

gressive,  not  amenable  to  perpetual  revision ;  tlicrein  the 
human  mind  is  not  the  final  umpire;  that  it  is  a  divine 
science,  the  facts  not  derived  from  human  observation  and 
consciousness,  but  miraculously  communicated  to  man. 
Accordingly,  the  men  who  control  the  Popular  Theology  and 
occupy  most  of  the  pulpits  of  these  countries,  accept  an  old 
system  of  opinions  which  does  not  correspond  to  the  general 
consciousness  of  enhghtened  men  at  this  day.  This  obso- 
lete Theology  is  set  up  either  as  religion  itself,  or  else  as  the 
indispensable  condition  of  religion.  Thus  the  religious,  the 
moral,  and  indeed  the  general  spiritual  development  of  man- 
kind, is  much  retarded.  Nay  the  theologians  often  claim 
eminent  domain  over  the  other  sciences,  insisting  that  the 
naturalist,  the  historian  and  the  metaphysician  shall  conform 
to  their  artificial  standard  and  interpret  facts  of  observation 
and  of  consciousness  so  as  to  correspond  with  their  whimsi- 
cal dreams  ;  so  that  now  the  greatest  obstacle  which  lies  in 
the  way  of  human  progress  is  the  Popular  Theology. 

In  the  time  of  Jesus  and  Paul  the  spiritual  progress  of 
mankind  was  hindered  by  the  theological  conclusions  and 
ritual  forms  of  previous  generations.  What  was  the  result 
of  hard  thinking  and  manifold  effort  on  the  father's  part  was 
accepted  by  the  sons  as  a  foregone  conclusion,  as  a  finality 
in  religion.  So  the  sons  inherited  their  fathers'  thought, 
but  not  his  thinking,  and  made  his  religious  form  the  sub- 
stitute for  religious  life  on  their  own  part.  If  we  sum  up 
the  theologies  and  rituals  of  ante-Christian  antiquity  in  two 
words,  we  may  say  that  at  the  time  of  Jesus  and  Paul 
Heathenism  and  Hebraism  hindered  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  mankind.  The  wheels  of  the  human  chariot,  deep 
in  a  rut,  had  reached  the.  spot  where  the  road  ended ;  the 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

wheels  must  be  lifted  out,  and  a  new  highway  made  ready, 
reaching  further  on.  The  religious  problem  of  the  human 
race  then  was  to  separate  the  human  spirit  from  the  Mis- 
takes and  Errors  and  Sins  of  the  past,  and  furnishing 
itself  with  all  the  good  of  old  times,  to  press  forward  to  new 
triumph.  The  old  bottles  were  empty,  there  must  be  new 
wine,  and  that  put  in  new  bottles.  The  attempt  to  solve 
this  problem  was  the  greatest  revolution  which  the  world 
ever  saw.  What  destruction  was  there  of  the  old !  The 
flame  of  old  mythologies,  burning  to  ashes,  licked  at  the 
stars  of  heaven.  "What  construction  was  there  also  !  The 
"  Christian  Theology  "  and  the  "  Christian  Church  "  are 
the  most  remarkable  organization  of  thoughts  and  men 
which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 


At  this  day  the  civilized  world  is  divided  into  five  great 
world-sects  having  each  a  special  Form  of  Religion,  all  of 
Caucasian  origin,  coming  either  from  the  Sanscrit  or  the 
Hebrew  stock,  —  the  Brahmans,  the  Buddhists,  the  Jews,  the 
Mahometans  and  the  Christians.  They  are  now  in  a  state 
of  territorial  equilibrium,  neither  gains  much  upon  the  other 
l)y  means  of  theological  conversion.  Soon  after  the  death 
of  Buddha,  Jesus  and  Mahomet,  their  respective  Forms 
of  Religion  spread  with  great  rapidity.  For  many  centu- 
ries there  has  been  no  national  conversion.  In  three  hun- 
dred years  Christendom  probably  has  not  converted  as  many 
thousand  Heathens  to  its  own  mode  of  belief.  The 
Christians  conquer,  they  do  not  convert,  the  barbarism  in 
either  hemisphere. 

These  five  great  world-sects  embrace  perhaps  eight  hun- 


INTRODUCTION.  XXxi 

dred  million  men ;  and  with  tlicm  Theology,  if  studied  at 
all,  is  commonly  studied  in  fetters.  Just  now  the  spiritual 
progress  of  the  world  is  most  promoted  by  the  Christians. 
This  comes  partly  from  the  superiority  of  their  Form  of 
Religion  ;  but  partly  also  from  the  youth  and  superior  vigor 
of  the  leading  nations  of  Christendom.  But  here  also  the 
progressive  power  is  quite  unequally  distributed.  Christen- 
dom is  broken  into  three  great  sects,  namely,  the  Greek,  the 
Latin,  and  the  Teutonic  churches. 

The  Greek  church  finds  most  of  its  followers  in  the  Greek 
and  Sclavonic  nations,  and  thus  serves  to  unite  the  oldest 
and  the  newest  families  of  Christendom. 

The  Greeks,  the  sad  remnants  of  a  nation  long  since 
decayed,  have  now  little  influence  on  the  religious  develop- 
ment of  the  world.  For  a  thousand  years  past  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Basils  and  Cyrils,  of  Chrysostom  and  Athana- 
sius,  of  Origen  and  the  Clements,  have  done  nothing  for 
the  religious,  or  intellectual,  advance  of  Christendom. 
Genius  flees  from  nations  in  their  dotage  and  decay.  At 
present  the  Greeks  seem  to  find  no  contradiction  in  their 
consciousness  between  the  theological  doctrines  of  their 
church  and  the  religious  instincts,  or  intellectual  convictions, 
of  the  individual  Christian.  They  are  unproductive,  gene- 
rating no  new  religious  sentiments,  no  new  theological 
ideas.  Too  far  gone  to  be  conservative,  they  do  not  even 
reproduce  the  works  of  the  ancient  masters  of  Christian 
thought  or  Christian  feeling.  Athanasius  would  be  more  a 
stranger  in  his  own  Alexandria  than  in  any  city  of  the  west. 
Chrysostom  is  better  known  at  Berlin  than  Byzantium. 
The  churches  which  once  boasted  that  they  had  "  the  chairs 


XXXll  INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  Apostles  "  are  now  indebted  to  the  charity  of  London 
and  Boston  for  the  Epistles  of  Paul  and  James.  Even  the 
manuscripts  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  Fathers  have  followed 
the  Star  of  empire  which  stands  still  in  the  west.  Super- 
stition takes  the  place  of  genius ;  and  doting  Greece  seems 
as  incapable  of  intellectual  and  religious  originality  as  of 
political  freedom.  There  is  an  old  age  of  nations  as  of 
men.  Most  intellectual  of  nations,  the  golden  mouths  of  Ho- 
mer and  Chrysostom  were  fed  at  her  bosom ;  Socrates  and 
Aristotle,  Origen  and  Athanasius  are  her  children.  She 
has  rocked  the  classic  and  Christian  civilization  in  her  cradle. 
Let  the  world's  benediction  fall  on  that  aged  head. 

The  Sclavonic  population  is  not  yet  far  enough  advanced 
in  civilization  to  have  any  influence  on  the  Theology  of 
Christendom.  Some  of  this  stock  are  members  of  the  Latin 
church ;  the  vast  majority  are  of  the  Greek  communion. 
To  these  sixty,  or  eighty  million  men  the  Czar  is  an  incar- 
nate God.  He  is  their  living  Law,  their  living  Gospel 
too,  superior  to  all  constitutions  of  the  state ;  to  all  tradi- 
tions, written,  or  only  remembered,  of  the  church ;  to  all 
aspirations  and  intuitions  of  the  individual  man ;  amenable 
only  to  the  dagger  of  the  assassin.  In  theological  and  mili- 
tary affairs  he  commands  with  equal  audacity ;  and  with 
the  same  submissiveness  his  slaves  obey.  His  will  is  alike 
the  standard  for  the  length  of  the  priest's  beard,  the  fusee 
of  the  canon,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  catechism.  He  is 
the  universal  norm  of  faith  and  practice,  the  great  fugle- 
man of  the  Sclavonic  family  sixty,  or  eighty  millions 
strong.  Oriental  fatalism  preponderates  in  the  immovable 
Eussian  church.     There  is  a  mechanical  adherence  to  the 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXlll 

Byzantine  forms  of  worsliip.  The  old  ritual  is  retained, 
the  old  symbol  respected.  But  the  nation  has  not  philo- 
sophical curiosity  enough  to  study  and  comprehend  the  old, 
nor  historical  interest  sufficient  to  republish,  or  read,  the 
ancient  masters  of  its  own  church ;  still  less  instinctive  reli- 
gious life  enough  to  produce  new  sentiments  in  the  form  of 
mysticism,  new  ideas  in  the  shape  of  dissentient  Theology, 
or  new  actions  in  the  guise  of  fresh,  original  morality. 
With  the  people,  the  ceremonies  of  the  church  and  obedience 
to  the  Czar,  pass  for  religion ;  with  the  small  class  of  edu- 
cated men  the  cold  negations  of  the  French  mind  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  are  taken  for  philosophy.  The  nation 
is  still  sunk  in  semi-barbarism.  Here  and  there  a  few 
great  minds,  like  the  rivers  of  the  empire,  emerge  from  this 
sv\'amp  and  sweep  on  in  grand  majestic  course.  There  is 
probably  but  little  contradiction  between  the  religious  in- 
stinct of  the  people' and  the  ecclesiastical  forms  imposed 
thereon.  There  is  no  new,  normal  Russian  Science  —  Phy- 
sics, History,  Psychology,  —  to  conflict  with  the  abnormal 
Theology  inherited  from  Byzantium.  The  chief  character- 
istics of  the  Russian  church  are'Czarism  and  immobility  — 
it  is  so  steadfast  that  it  never  seems  to  stir.  But  let  no 
man  mistake  —  there  is  no  stillness  to  a  young  nation's  mind, 
the  root  grows  under  ground  before  the  blade  appears.  In 
time  of  peace  Russia  controls  Europe  by  her  diplomacy,  in 
time  of  war  by  her  bayonets.  When  she  cannot  win  a 
battle  she  can  buy  the  result  of  victory.  Doubtless  these 
expectant  conquerors  of  Europe,  —  nay,  its  present  masters, 
—  will  one  day  have  a  religious  consciousness  of  their  own, 
with  sentiments,  ideas  and  actions  new  and  original.  When 
Cffisar  and  Tacitus  wrote  of  the  Germans,  who  foresaw  the 


XXXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

Lutliers  and  Schleiermacliers  that  were  to  come  ?  Xay,  in 
the  time  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  subtle  Erasmus  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  religious  America  soon  to  be  born  of  that  Eng- 
lish mother. 


The  Latin  Church  includes  a  small  part  of  the  Sclavo- 
nic tribes  in  the  north  of  Europe;  the  Celtic  in  Ireland 
and  Scotland;  a  portion  of  the  Teutonic  in  Germany, 
Switzerland  and  the  Low  Countries;  and  the  Romanic 
tribes  in  the  south  and  west  of  Europe  —  the  Italo-Romans, 
the  Hispano-Romans  and  the  Gallo-Romans  —  with  their 
descendants  in  America  and  other  quarters  of  the  globe.  A 
few  other  disciples  of  the  Latin  church  are  scattered  up  and 
down  the  world,  but  they  may  be  neglected  in  a  sketch  so 
brief  as  this. 

The  Sclavonic,  Celtic,  and  Hispano-Romanic  members  of 
the  Latin  church,  at  present,  exercise  no  considerable  spir- 
itual influence  on  the  world.  They  affect  Christendom 
chiefly  by  their  brute  numbers  and  brute  work.  The  Cel- 
tic and  Spanish  populations  are  plainly  in  a  state  of  decay ; 
they  can  only  look  back  with  pride  to  the  days  when  Ireland 
and  Spain  were  the  intellectual  gardens  of  Europe ;  or 
forward  to  the  time  when  the  remnants  of  those  once  famous 
tribes  shall  mingle  their  blood  with  the  fresh  life  of  other 
families  still  vigorous  with  new  life,  and  so  shall  add  their 
tribute  to  the  great  stream  of  humanity  now  spreading  so 
i"apidly  over  the  western  continent  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea.  The  impotence  of  the  Hispano-Romanic  population 
has  been  demonstrated  by  the  experience  of  the  last  three 


INTRODUCTIOX.  XXXV 

liiuidrcd  years.  Both  Eurojic  and  America  are  >vilnesscs 
to  the  sad  fact.  When  Germany  invented  the  printing 
press,  Spain  set  up  the  inquisition.  Dr.  Faustus  and  Tor- 
quemada  are  types  of  the  two  nations.  Spain  has  not 
added  a  thought  to  the  workl's  consciousness  since  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabeha,  by  the  butchery  of  their  subjects,  won 
from  the  Pope  the  title  of  "  Catholic."  In  America  the 
Spanish  families  have  spread  only  as  the  simoon  in  Africa, 
bringing  storm  and  desolation.  The  Theology  of  the  Latin 
church  is  a  curse  in  South  America  and  Mexico.  Loving 
the  Liquisition  it  hates  the  printer  and  the  schoolmaster  : 
but  like  the  ruins  of  Persepolis  it  retains  the  great  sculp- 
ture of  ancient  times. 

Italy  is  Catholic  in  name  and  form.  But  the  Italians 
and  the  Greeks  present  us  the  same  spectacle,  with  a  differ- 
ence only  in  the  degree  of  national  decay ;  a  Tartar  troop 
has  subjugated  Greece ;  Romanic  Turks  rule  Italy  in  her 
decline,  the  dissolution  not  so  complete  as  yet.  Four  great 
Italian  navigators  made  America  known  to  the  world.  But 
the  continent  slipped  through  the  fingers  of  Italy.  Genoa, 
Florence,  Venice  own  not  an  inch  of  American  Soil.  The 
tongue  of  Columbus  and  Cabot  is  not  the  language  of  a 
town  in  the  new  world.  There  is  not  an  Italian  church  in  the 
western  hemisphere  :  yet  New  York  has  better  Italian  news- 
papers than  Rome  or  Naples,  Florence  or  Venice.  Italy 
has  added  little  to  the  world's  thought  since  a  Roman  Pope 
forced  Galileo  to  crouch  and  deny  the  movement  of  the 
world ;  "  and  yet  it  moves,"  leaving  Pope  and  Rome  and 
Italy  behind.  Martin  Luther  fled  out  of  the  "  Christian 
Capital,"    disgusted  with  the  heathenism  he  saw.      Italy 


XXXVl  INTRODUCTION. 

affects  the  world  b}"  her  past  history,  by  her  ancient  art,  and 
her  literature  of  beauty.  The  prestige  of  the  proud  city 
has  still  a  charm  for  Christian  and  for  cultured  men.  The 
works  of  Leonardo,  Angelo,  Raphael,  Domenichino,  Titian, 
—  when  will  they  die?  The  laurels  of  Dante,  Petrarch 
and  Tasso  lose  not  a  leaf;  what  thunder  shall  scorch  the 
crown  on  the  brows  of  Lucretius  and  Virgil,  or  blast  the 
beauty  of  the  Horatian  muse  ?  Rome,  the  widow  of  two 
civilizations,  sits  there  on  the  shore  of  the  Tiber,  sad,  yet 
magnificently  beautiful ;  she  bears  in  her  bosom  the  relics 
of  heathen  and  Christian  martyrs,  but  with  atheistic  feet 
tramples  the  ashes  of  her  own  victims,  martyrs  not  less 
noble.  The  dust  of  Arnaldo  da  Brescia,  and  of  many  a 
noble  soul,  yet  cries  out  of  the  Tiber  against  her.  Ignoble 
sons,  a  populace  of  priests,  at  her  feet  consume  their  bread. 
Austria  and  France  court  and  insult  her  by  turns.  The 
Queen  Mother,  she  has  lost  her  power. 

Yet  piety  still  treads  the  aisles  of  the  Italian  church :  but 
alas,  it  is  the  mediaeval  piety  which  tolls  bells,  fasts,  sings 
antique  psalms  with  a  half-manly  voice,  prays  and  gives 
alms,  but  dares  not  think,  nor  work,  nor  do  justly  and  walk 
manly  with  its  God.  Popeism  is  to  Italy  what  Czarism  is 
to  Russia  —  only  the  Italian  hates  the  hand  that  rules. 

In  the  educated  classes  scepticism  seems  chiefly  to  prevail ; 
the  negations  of  the  French  and  English  Philosophers  of  the 
last  century.  Able  men  reproduce  the  thoughts  of  Aris- 
totle and  Aquinas.  The  bold  voice  of  German  philosophy 
is  echoed  from  the  Sorbonne  at  Paris,  and  a  feeble  note  of 
the  echo  reaches  the  domos  of  Italy.  Little  new  philosophy 
gets  spoken  there.  Who  supposes  the  educated  clergy 
believe  the  theology  they  profess,  or  trust  the  ritual  and 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXVU 

sacrament  which  they  administer.  It  is  plain  there  is  a 
contradiction  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Italian  church. 
There  seems  a  negation  of  the  substance  of  religion,  and 
an  affirmation  of  only  its  form.  Italy  does  nothing  to 
advance  the  Theological  Science  of  the  world,  or  to  diffuse 
a  fairer  form  of  religion  amongst  mankind ;  the  Roman 
Church,  the  mediaeval  Nightmare  of  the  Caucasian  race, 
presses  her  in  her  sleep.  Shall  the  Teutonic  race  spread 
over  Italy,  as  the  Sclavonic  over  Greece ;  the  "  Barbarian  " 
possess  those  crops  of  ancient  art  ?  Who  can  say  what 
shall  succeed  an  effete  race  of  men  ? 

In  the  ecclesiastical  condition  of  France  there  is  the  same 
wavering  to  and  fro,  which  has  long  distinguished  all  the 
action  of  this  Gallo-Romanic  people.  Since  the  Reforma- 
tion, her  course  has  been  fearfully  inconsistent ;  the  Protes- 
tant theology  came  to  France  in  the  form  of  Calvinism.. 
The  political  character  of  that  form  of  religion  —  so  inimical] 
to  royalty  and  all  centralization  of  power,  made  it  hateful: 
to  the  monarchic  politicians,  even  Francis  the  First  regard- 
ing it  as  hostile  "  to  all  monarchy,  divine  or  human ; "  its 
severe  morality,  its  devout  earnestness  and  simplicity,  were 
detestable  to  the  wealthy  nobles.  But  it  was  welcomed  by 
the  manufacturing  and  mercantile  classes,  and  gained  for  a 
time  such  privileges  as  even  Catholicism  did  not  possess. 
But  the  Protestant  star  set  in  a  sea  of  blood.  Now  France 
is  more  ultra-montane  in  its  character  than  ever  since  the 
days  of  Chancellor  Gerson.  In  all  things  the  nation  fluctu- 
ates :  now  wath  loud  acclaim  the  public  declare  the  unaliena- 
ble Rights  of  man  and  seek  to  build  thereon  a  human  State; 
then,  with  acclamations  yet  louder,  they  welcome  a  despo-- 


XXXVlll  INTRODUCTION. 

tism.  One  day  they  deify  a  courtezan  as  Goddess  of  Rea- 
son, then  turn  and  worship  the  Po^^e,  and  enthrone  Louis 
Napoleon  as  Emperor. 

At  this  day  France  seems  to  reproduce  the  phenomena 
of  the  Lower  Empire.  Paris  is  a  modern  Byzantium  — 
the  period  of  decadence  appears  to  have  begun.  But  there 
is  intellectual  activity,  profound,  various  and  versatile ;  no 
nation  had  ever  such  talent  for  clearness  of  sight,  accuracy 
of  discrimination  and  attractive  nicety  of  statement.  Not 
bewildered  as  the  Germans  by  the  refinements  of  subtlety, 
the  French  mind  sees  and  reports  the  real  distinctions  how- 
ever nice.  But  no  nation  has  a  more  divided  consciousness. 
Catholicism  is  the  religion  of  the  state ;  with  the  wealthy 
and  educated  classes  of  men  it  seems  to  be  only  a  state- 
Teligion,  a  mere  spectacle,  as  remote  from  their  convictions 
as  the  heathenism  of  Rome  from  the  mind  of  Cicero  and 
Caesar.  The  priests  forget  the  lessons  of  Bossuet  and  are 
Roman  rather  than  Gallic,  so  mediaeval  in  their  tendencies. 
But  the  philosophers  —  the  historians,  naturalists,  metaphy- 
sicians, economists,  —  what  is  their  religion  ?  The  two 
extremes  of  speculation  are  united  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  nation,  which  accepts  alike  Ilelvetius  and  Thomas  a 
Kempis.  France  does  nothing  to  remove  the  contradiction 
from  the  mind  of  Christendom ;  nay,  she  increases  tHe  trouble 
by  developing  each  extreme.  The  "  Eclectic  Philosophy  " 
of  modern  France  does  not  appear  as  yet  in  the  theology  of 
the  nation. 

Yet  at  this  time  France  has  a  great  influence  on  the 
mind  of  Christendom.  The  powerful  Catholic  party  re- 
prints the  old  masters  of  thought,  expounds  the  history  of 
times   gone   by,   not   forgetful   that   scholasticism  —  which 


INTRODUCTION.  XXxix 

sought  to  reconcile  the  history  of  the  Church  with  the  nature 
of  man  —  was  borne  in  lier  bosom.  Calholic  France  has 
more  intellectual  life  than  all  the  other  Romanic  races,  and 
does  some  service  to  mankind.  Abelard  and  Descartes  were 
her  children.  But  alas,  her  function  is  only  conservative,  not 
creative,  not  even  critical.  The  clean  and  the  unclean  are 
equally  taken  into  her  ark,  and  equally  honored  while  there. 
The  philosophical  party  influence  the  world  by  their 
science,  history  and  letters;  the  rich  wine  of  Germany  is 
here  clarified,  decanted  and  made  ready  for  popular  use. 
But  enlightened  France  does  not  study  theology.  Few 
important  works  in  that  science  have  got  printed  there  since 
the  "  Great  Encyclopedia "  made  its  appearance.  The 
Bible  is  printed  in  France  as  in  England ;  it  is  studied  in 
Germany.  The  philosophers  do  little  to  mediate  between 
Scepticism  —  which  stops  with  d'Holbach,  or  Voltaire  — 
and  Superstition  which  seeks  to  believe  what  is  impossible 
and  because  it  is  impossible.  It  is  a  strange  phenomenon  that 
there  should  be  a  "new  advent  of  the  Virgin  Mary"  in 
France  at  the  same  time  M.  Comte  publishes  his  "  System 
of  Positive  Philosophy,"  making  "a  new  Supreme  Being" 
out  of  the  mass  of  men,  all  of  them  deemed  merely  mortal ! 
The  old  defences  of  the  Popular  Theology  are  republished ; 
but  of  what  avail  are  they  to  men  who  have  read  Bayle  and 
the  Encyclopedic  ?  At  one  extreme  of  society,  the  Jesuits 
revive  the  theology  of  Thomas  Aquinas ;  at  the  other 
extreme  there  is  the  foremost  Science  of  the  age.  Religion 
never  fails  from  the  heart  of  a  nation  —  but  when  the  the- 
ology which  is  taught  in  the  name  of  religion,  and  as  the 
indispensable  condition  thereof,  is  at  variance  with  the  con- 
victions of  every  enlightened  man ;  when  it  is  not  believed 


xl  INTRODUCTIOX. 

by  the  priests  who  teach  it  more  than  by  the  philosophers 
who  will  not  smile  at  it,  —  why,  the  religious  development 
>of   the  nation  is  attended   with  the  greatest  difficulties. 

The  Latin  church  has  disciples  in  the  Teutonic  family  — 
among  Scandinavians,  Germans,  and  Anglo-Saxons.  But 
they  are  chiefly  found  in  those  countries  where  the  govern- 
ment is  most  despotic,  or  where  the  intellectual  activity  of 
the  people,  even  of  the  learned,  is  the  feeblest.  The  cruel 
persecution  of  the  Irish  Catholics,  so  long  and  so  systemati- 
cally carried  on  by  the  British  government,  converted  men 
and  women  of  Protestant  families  to  the  faith  of  the  patient 
and  heroic  sufferers.  Of  late  years  some  of  the  most  pious 
and  most  learned  men  of  England  —  so  it  seems  to  one  at 
this  distance  —  have  gone  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  Latin 
church.  Doubtless  there  is  much  in  that  church  which  the 
English  Establishment  has  unwisely  left  behind.  The 
relapse  of  English  churchmen  to  Catholicism  shows  at  least 
that  there  is  some  life  and  a  real  desire  for  j^iety  and  reli- 
gious tranquillity  in  that  least  Protestant  of  the  new  churches. 
Within  twenty  years  past  the  Catholic  Theology  has  had 
considerable  influence  on  the  English  mind. 

The  Scandinavian,  Dutch  and  Belgic  Catholics  have  little 
appreciable  influence  on  the  mind  of  Europe  at  this  day. 
The  intellectual  activity  of  these  nations  does  not  appear  in  a 
Catholic  form.  Perhaps  it  would  not  be  possible  to  mention 
a  Catholic  book  published  in  these  countries  during  the  pres- 
ent century,  which  has  had  any  appreciable  influence  on  the 
thought  or  feeling  of  Europe.  Yet  in  Belgium  there  is 
considerable  religious  life ;  at  this  distance  it  aj^pears 
the  most  religiously  Catholic  country  of  Europe. 


INTRODUCTION.  xll 

Amongst  other  Catholics  of  the  Teutonic  family  there  is 
more  intellectual  activity.  Valuable  books  relating  to 
Catholic  Theology  are  published  in  the  German  tongue. 
Hebrew  and  Christian  antiquity  is  carefully  studied  ;  much 
thought  goes  to  the  exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  to  the 
study  of  ecclesiastical  history.  An  attempt  is  made  by  able 
and  learned  men  to  reconcile  the  Catholic  Theology  of  the 
middle  ages  with  the  most  advanced  speculations  of  Kant 
and  Hegel.  Among  the  German  Catholics  of  the  present 
century  there  are  the  honorable  names  of  Jahn,  Hug,  Wes- 
senberg,  Mohler,  Movers,  Staudenmaier,  and  others  of  per- 
haps equal  merit,  who  would  be  an  honor  to  any  nation. 
Books  full  of  religious  life  also  come  up  from  the  fresh  con- 
sciousness of  men,  —  both  mystical  and  practical.  The  Latin 
Church  seems  to  have  more  intellectual  and  religious  life  in 
the  country  of  Martin  Luther  than  elsewhere  in  the  world. 
But  still  the  new  thought,  the  new  feeling  which  controls  the 
Teutonic  population  is  far  from  Catholic.  The  new  reli- 
gious life  —  mystical  or  practical  —  is  not  Eoman.  The 
German  Catholic  movement  of  Ronge  only  weakens  the 
Latin  Church.  Of  the  six  eminent  Catholics  just  named, 
half  are  obviously  heretical ;  two  of  them  have  been  put  in 
the  Index.  Intellectual  activity  is  the  deadliest  foe  of  the 
Eoman  church  and  its  mediaeval  divinity.  Any  attempt  to 
reconcile  her  Theology  with  the  Science  of  the  nineteenth 
century  must  needs  end,  as  the  Scholasticism  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  in  the  conviction  that  the  two  are  natural  opposites. 

It  is  idle  to  suppose  the  Latin  Church  can  accept  any  thing 
new  and  good  from  the  science  of  these  times.  Her  only 
strength  is  to  stand  still ;  if  she  moves  she  must  perish : 
"  infallible,"  Immobility  and  Intolerance  are  the  indispensa- 


xlii  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

ble  conditions  of  her  existence.  The  Protestants  may  learn 
from  the  Catholics  as  the  Christians  from  the  Jews  and  the 
Heathens ;  but  it  is  not  possible  for  the  Catholics  to  learn 
from  the  Protestants  —  more  than  from  the  Heathen,  or 
the  Hebrew,  to  take  any  new  truth  from  the  Christians. 

Celtic  and  other  disciples  of  the  Latin  Church  appear  in 
the  portion  of  America  settled  bj  the  Teutonic  population. 
They  have  influence  only  by  their  numbers  and  gre- 
garious action.  The  laity  are  subordinate  to  the  clergy, 
who,  as  elsewhere,  studiously  keep  them  in  ignorance  and 
the  most  slavish  subjection.  The  Latin  Church  has  lost 
none  of  her  intolerance  and  despotism  by  removing  to 
America ;  learning  nothing  and  forgetting  nothing,  she  still 
-claims  the  right  to  cut  off  the  head  of  heresy  with  the 
sword.  She  only  wants  the  power.  The  toothless  old  lion 
of  the  mediaeval  wilderness,  his  claws  pared  off,  roams 
:abroad  in  the  new  world ;  he  journeys  in  "  clippers,"  in  steam- 
boats, in  railway  cars  ;  looks  at  the  ballot-box,  the  free 
school,  the  newspaper  and  the  Bible,  hating  them  all.  Now 
.and  then  he  roars  after  the  old  fashion  ;  but  no  Liquisition 
echoes  his  voice.  He  has  no  teeth,  no  claws ;  is  not  a  dan- 
gerous beast.  He  loved  European  slavery ;  he  loves  also 
American  Slavery;  and  equally  hates  a  negro  and  a  scholar. 

A  great  tide  of  immigration  sets  continually  to  America. 
It  is  chiefly  Catholics  who  come,  many  pious  and  holy  men 
.among  them  with  whom  their  Theology  is  the  result  of  con- 
viction, at  least  of  satisfied  experience  ;  many  are  ignorant, 
low  and  unfortunate  men,  who  are  Catholics  from  j^osition, 
they  cannot  yet  go  alone  in  religion,  and  wish  a  priest 
with  assumed  authority  to  guide,  or  push,  or  drive  them. 
Fear  of  the  priest  and  of  hell  is  the  hangman's  knot  to  hold 


INTRODUCTION.  xliii 

them  in  order.  But  many  are  Catholics  in  Europe  from 
indifference  or  from  fear.  In  America  they  cease  to  be 
Catholics.  If  the  immigrants  from  Catholic  countries  in  the 
present  century,  with  their  descendants,  amount  to  four  mil- 
lions—  a  moderate  estimate  —  then  it  appears  that  out  of 
thirteen  persons  who  were  reputed  Catholics  in  Europe,  or 
are  actually  born  of  such,  not  four  remain  in  the  commu- 
nion of  the  Catholic  Church  of  America. 

In  the  Latin  Church  as  a  whole,  little  is  done  to  reconcile 
the  actual  consciousness  of  men  with  the  traditional  The- 
ology. Scotus  Erigena  taught  that  "  all  authority  which  is 
not  confirmed  by  right  reason  seems  to  be  weak  ;  "  "  accord- 
ingly we  must  resort  to  reason  first  and  authority  afterwards." 
The  Scholastic  movement  may  be  dated  from  these  words, 
whereon  Erigena  stood  well  nigh  alone  in  his  time.  Now 
the  aim  of  the  Latin  Church,  —  nay,  it  always  has  been,  — 
is  to  subordinate  Man  to  the  Church,  reason  to  the  tradition 
of  the  past,  or  the  caprice  of  the  present :  accordingly  she 
does  not  allow  her  disciples  to  study  any  one  of  the  sciences 
in  the  normal  manner,  with  perfectly  free  individuality  of 
spirit.  Hence  she  aims  to  control  the  intellectual  convic- 
tions of  mankind,  making  her  mediaeval  catechism  the  norm 
of  all  science.  To  this  end  she  endeavors  to  keep  the  mass 
of  her  people  uneducated,  for  "ignorance  is  the  mother  of 
devotion  "  such  as  she  requires  ;  so  she  hates  the  free  school 
and  the  free  pulpit  and  the  free  press.  She  hampers  the 
learned  class  of  men  and  prohibits  them  from  publishing 
their  individual  opinions ;  and  hinders  them  from  reading 
the  books  which  contain  the  new  sentiments  and  ideas  of 
the  times.     The  bosom  of  this  church  feeds  the  most  odious 


xliv  INTRODUCTION. 

tyrannies  of  the  age.  Her  clergy  —  with  honorable  excep- 
tions —  are  the  allies,  the  advisers  and  the  tools  of  the  tor- 
mentor ;  and  deserve  the  scorn  and  loathing  of  the  people 
whom  they  deceive,  beguile  and  oppress.  The  name  of 
Jesuit  in  all  countries  has  won  a  reputation  which  no 
class  of  men  ever  had  before.  In  America,  the  managers 
of  the  Catholic  pulpits,  with  their  subordinates,  favor  the 
most  iniquitous  measures  of  Spanish  cruelty,  or  of  our  own 
Anglo-Saxon  hard-heartedness.  It  is  sad  to  see  the  well- 
meaning,  but  ignorant,  disciples  of  this  church  in  America 
exploitered  by  a  two-fold  Jesuitry  —  Romish  priests  unfeign- 
edly  despotic,  and  American  politicians  pretending  to  demo- 
cracy. But  there  are  in  the  United  States  individual  priests 
of  sound  learning,  of  true  and  beautiful  philanthroj^y,  of 
natural  piety.  Some  have  been  born  here,  others  have 
found  in  republican  and  protestant  America  the  asylum 
which  the  old  world  could  not  offer.  In  Europe  there  are 
many  such  scattered  abroad  in  the  humble  places  of  the 
Church.  Nay,  sometimes  they  find  their  way  to  a  lofty 
place.  Such  men  in  a  Church  which  suits  their  conscious- 
ness break  the  bread  of  humanity  from  house  to  house. 
Long  after  Christianity  became  one  of  the  religions  of  the 
world  there  were  truly  religious  men  and  women  who  found 
rest  for  their  souls  in  Hebraism,  or  Heathenism,  in  the  faith 
of  their  fathers. 


The  last  great  sect  may  be  called  the  Teutonic  Church, 
distinguished  by  its  Protest  against  some  of  the  doctrines  of 
both  its  predecessors.  Catholicism  is  the  religion  of  the 
Romanic  families  of    Christendom:    Protestantism  of  the 


INTRODUCTION.  xlv 

Teutonic  families.  The  love  of  free  individuality,  wliidi 
has  always  distinguished  this  great  family  of  men,  began 
its  opposition  to  the  Latin  Church  more  than  six  hundred 
years  ago.  From  Dutch  Peter  of  Bruis  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury to  Swabian  Dr.  Strauss  in  the  nineteenth,  the  most 
powerful  religious  opponents  of  the  ancestral  Theology  of 
Christendom  have  been  of  the  Teutonic  stock.  Even  the 
French  anti-Catholicism  of  the  last  century  was  of  English 
origin  and  went  over  the  channel  to  make  its  fortune. 

Protestants  there  are  of  other  families  scattered  about  in 
all  corners  of  Christendom.  But  those  of  the  Sclavonic  and 
Ugrian  families  in  the  East  of  Europe,  of  the  various 
Romanic  tribes  in  the  South  and  West,  have  now  little  influ- 
ence on  the  mind  of  Christendom,  and  may  be  neglected  in 
this  brief  sketch.  But  the  services  of  those  tribes,  in 
the  cause  of  religious  freedom,  should  not  be  forgot.  The 
world  ought  to  remember  that,  spite  of  ethnological  diversi- 
ties, human  nature  is  still  the  same,  loving  the  true, 
the  beautiful,  the  just,  the  holy,  and  the  good;  that 
Jesus  and  Paul  were  Jews;  that  Origen  was  an  Alexan- 
drian Greek ;  that  Pelagius  was  a  Celt ;  that  Spain  bore 
Servetus  in  her  bosom ;  that  France  was  the  mother  of 
John  Calvin ;  that  Italy  gave  birth  to  Occhino,  the  Socini 
and  many  of  their  kin ;  that  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of 
Prague,  though  lighting  their  lamps  at  a  Teutonic  spark, 
were  yet  of  another  family ;  that  Sclavonians  in  Poland,  and 
Mongol  Ugrians  in  Transylvania  afforded  sympathy  and 
shelter  to  men  who  fled  thither,  centuries  ago,  with  the  Ark 
of  the  Covenant  of  religious  freedom  in  their  hands.  Still 
the  territorial  home  of  religious  freedom  in  modern  times, 
and  the  eminent  love  of  free  individuality  in  religion  belong 


xlvi  INTRODUCTION. 

distinctively  to  the  various  tribes  of  the  Teutonic  family. 
They  may  be  divided  as  before  into  Scandinavians,  Anglo- 
Saxons,  and  Germans. 

The  religious  sentiments  and  theological  doctrines  of  the 
Scandinavians  have  little  influence  on  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  the  other  nations  of  Christendom  at  j^resent ;  and 
so  in  this  sketch  they  may  be  passed  by,  not  without  grati- 
tude for  the  obstinate  heroism  which  went  from  the  North 
with  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  secured  existence  to  Protes- 
tantism in  the  centre  of  Europe  when  Jesuitism  and  roy- 
alty clutched  at  its  life.  The  Germans  and  Anglo-Saxons 
require  further  and  extended  notice :  for  one  of  them 
is  the  most  speculative  and  scientific,  and  the  other  is  the 
most  practical,  people  that  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the 
history  of  mankind  ;  and  both  have  a  deep  and  wide  influence 
on  the  affairs  of  Christendom  at  this  day. 

In  Germany  the  natural  religiousness  of  the  people  has 
been  much  hindered  by  the  political  circumstances  of  the 
several  states.  The  frequent  wars  that  since  the  days  of 
John  Huss  have  disturbed  the  land,  which  is  the  battle  field 
in  the  long  contest  between  ancient  bondage  and  modern 
freedom ;  the  oppressive  character  of  the  local  governments  ; 
the  ecclesiastical  routine,  established  by  the  State  and  en- 
forced with  the  bayonet ;  the  restrictions  of  industry  in 
many  forms  —  all  tend  to  hinder  the  development  of  reli- 
gion in  the  people,  and  still  more  in  the  most  enlightened 
classes  of  the  nation.  But  serious  and  most  j^rofound  and 
most  varied  attempts  have  been  made  by  this  people  to 
reconcile  human  consciousness  with  the  traditional  Theology 


INTRODUCTION.  xlvii 

of  the  Christian  church.  In  some  Universities  Theology  is 
studied  ^Yith  the  same  freedom  as  the  other  sciences.  Ger- 
many is  the  only  country  of  Christendom  ^Yhere  this  Queen- 
mother  of  Science  is  treated  ^vith  such  respect.  Paul  and 
Jesus  are  regarded  as  men,  not  as  babies.  The  mind  of 
the  Germans  has  some  qualities  well  fitted  to  solve  the  theo- 
logical problems  of  the  age.  Intuitive  to  a  great  degree,  as 
their  originality  in  many  departments  abundantly  proves ; 
deeply  religious  by  nature  as  the  ante- Christian  modes  of 
worship  made  plain  to  Roman  Tacitus,  and  as  the  mysticism 
of  the  nation  has  shown  ever  since  the  days  of  Saint  Boni- 
facius ;  creative  and  imaginative  as  no  other  nation  has  ever 
been,  —  a  fact  proven  by  the  wide  spread  and  characteristic 
national  music,  by  the  rich  and  various  literature  of  the 
educated,  and  still  more  by  the  legends  and  songs,  the  wild 
flowers  of  imagination,  which  have  sprung  up  from  the 
bosom  of  the  people,  as  the  Forget-me-not,  the  Violet,  the 
Daisy  and  manifold  Heaths  from  the  meadows  and  moun- 
tains, for  the  creative  imagination  seems  as  universal  in  the 
people  as  the  plastic  forms  of  vegetation  in  Nature ;  labo- 
rious and  patient,  so  that  their  scholars  are  the  most  numer- 
ous and  learned  that  the  human  race  ever  bore ;  cosmopoli- 
tan and  universal  to  a  degree  not  deemed  possible  to  the 
Greeks,  counting  nothing  unclean  because  it  is  common, 
nothing  inaccessible  because  lofty  and  hard  to  come  by; 
subtle  in  discrimination;  nice  in  analysis  of  facts  of  observa- 
tion and  still  more  of  facts  of  consciousness  ;  of  great  power 
to  generalize,  often  running  to  excess ;  with  a  natural  or 
acquired  tendency  to  the  world  of  thoughts  and  feelings 
rather  than  to  the  details  of  commerce  and  art ;  with  a  lan- 
guage which  is  so  pliant  that  it  takes  any  form  which  the 


xlviii  IXTRODUCTION. 

human  mind  needs  for  its  most  yarioiis  purposes  of  intellec- 
tual advancement,  inferior  only  to  the  ancient  Greek  —  it 
seems  that  the  Germans  are  singularly  fitted  to  solve  the 
theological  problems  of  the  world.  All  the  new  theological 
thought  of  Christendom  for  the  last  three  hundred  years 
has  come  from  some  tribe  of  this  great  Teutonic  family. 
The  Roman  State  was  broken  by  Herman ;  the  Roman 
Church  by  Luther  on  the  same  "  red  earth  "  of  Germany. 
In  vain  Rome  cried  "  Give  me  back  Varus  and  his  legions  ;  " 
in  vain  "  Give  me  back  my  infallible  Pope  and  his  Indul- 
gences." Germany  broke  with  Rome.  The  nation  which 
invented  Gunpowder  and  the  Printing  Press  demanded  free 
individuality  of  spirit  in  matters  of  religion. 

Since  Luther's  time,  and  long  before  it,  the  German 
mind  has  studied  Theology  devoutly  and  manfully.  The 
interference  of  government  has  indeed  checked  both  religious 
feeling  and  theological  speculation  ;  it  has  prevented  neither. 
Free  thought,  however,  has  not  found  any  general  expres- 
sion in  the  pulpit,  but  in  the  colleges ;  it  speaks  by  the  iron 
lips  of  the  press,  not  the  living  tongue  of  the  preacher;  it 
is  addressed  to  the  learned,  not  the  people.  So  while  the 
Shepherd  has  revelled  in  intellectual  plenty  with  all  the  corn 
of  whole  Egypts  at  his  command,  the  flock  has  grazed  in 
scanty  parish-commons,  waterless  and  brown,  or  browsed 
on  theology,  on  dry  and  leafless  catechisms.  The  learned  phi- 
losopher must  preach  what  the  unlearned  kings  command ; 
he  may  think,  and  print  for  the  army  of  scholars,  what  heresy 
he  will.  The  result  has  been  a  sad  one  for  the  shepherd 
and  the  flock,  the  philosojiher  and  the  kings. 

The  great  army  of  theological  scholars  in  Germany  may 
be  divided  into  two  grand  divisions,  namely :  the  Biblicists 


INTRODUCTION.  xlix 

wlio  make  the  Scriptures  the  norm  and  standard  measure  of 
religion,  theology  and  all  Avliich  pertains  thereto  ;  and  the 
Philosophers,  who  make  the  human  Spirit  the  standard 
measure  in  Theology  as  in  all  science,  in  religious,  as  in 
a3Sthetic,  ethical,  or  affectional  affairs. 

Each  of  these  parties,  the  Biblicists  and  the  Philosophers, 
may  be  again  divided  into  two  brigades  :  namely,  the  Super- 
naturalists  who  believe  in  miracles,  and  the  Naturalists  who 
reject  miracles ;  and  each  brigade  into  its  right  wing  and  its 
left  wing ;  each  of  these  into  an  Extreme  Right  and 
Extreme  Left.  So  in  this  theological  host  there  are  the  Bib- 
licists and  Philosophers,  made  up  of  biblical  Naturalists 
and  biblical  Supernaturalists,  and  of  philosophical  Natur- 
alists and  philosophical  Supernaturalists ;  with  their  Ex- 
treme Right  and  Extreme  Left.  In  the  line  of  Christians, 
for  mastery  of  the  world  battling  face  to  face  with  the  great 
antagonistic  sects — Brahmans  and  Buddhists,  Jews,  Ma- 
hometans and  Heathens,  —  the  Biblicists  stand  next  to  the 
Catholics,  the  Extreme  Right  of  the  Biblical  Supernaturalists 
touching  the  left  wing  of  the  Latin  Church.  The  Philo- 
sophical Naturalists  are  at  the  opposite  end  of  this  German 
army,  their  Extreme  Left  bordering,  not  distinguishably,. 
upon  Atheists  and  others  of  like  sort. 

All  phases  of  Christian  speculation  and  Christian  feeling 
are  reproduced,  examined  and  judged  by  this  army  of 
students.  The  air  rings  with  the  thunder  of  the  captains 
and  the  shouting.  The  ground  is  cumbered  with  the  mis- 
siles—  historical,  exegetical,  philological,  philosophical, 
mystical  —  which  are  cast  at  the  other  sects,  at  the  Catho- 
lics, and  still  more  at  each  other.  But  to  drop  the  military 
metaphor  —  a  serious  attempt  is  making  in  Germany  to. 
E 


1  INTRODUCTION. 

study  Theology  as  a  Science,  with  freedom  and  impartiality. 
Mistakes  and  Errors  must  needs  be  made.  Many  Sins  also 
will  be  and  are,  doubtless,  committed,  but  much  truth  comes 
to  light.  Some  writers  affirm  the  absolute  truth  of  every 
word  in  the  Bible  ;  others  deny  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  and  the  existence  of  God,  and  deifiand  the  "  Rehabili- 
tation of  the  Flesh  in  its  aboriginal  supremacy  over  the 
spirit  of  man." 

To  one  at  this  distance  there  appear  three  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  the  German  Protestant  churches :  namely, 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  are  not  even  spectators  to 
the  controversy,  for  the  difference  of  culture  between  the 
scholar  and  the  practical  man  is  so  great  that  the  two  are 
incomprehensible  to  each  other.  Then  the  scholars,  in  con- 
sequence partly  of  their  seclusion  from  the  people  and  of 
their  unpractical  character,  use  such  vague  terms  that  it  is 
often  difficult  to  apprehend  their  meaning ;  subtler  than  Athe- 
nian and  Alexandrian  Greeks,  nice  as  the  quibbling  school- 
men of  the  Middle  Ages,  they  seem  often  entangled  in 
their  own .  intricate  phraseology.  Again,  they  are  intel- 
lectual and  speculative  more  than  ethical  and  practical. 

But  spite  of  these  faults  Christendom  owes  a  great  obli- 
gation to  the  German  Scholars  of  the  last  seventy  years, 
not  to  mention  the  noble  men  who  preceded  them,  for  the 
services  they  have  rendered  mankind  by  exploring  the 
depths  of  human  consciousness  and  expounding  the  past 
history  of  the  race.  The  immoral  and  atheistic  philoso- 
phers are  but  exceptions  to  the  general  rule.  In  the 
breaking  up  of  old  dogmas  there  is  always  much  abnormal 
action  ;  a  revolution  is  a  turning  over  and  over. 


INTRODUCTION.  ll 

The  Anglo-Saxons  are  a  burly-minded  race  of  men  ;  more 
ethical  than  imaginative,  artistic,  or  philosophical,  they  arc 
the  most  practical  people  at  this  day  in  all  Christendom. 
With  consummate  skill  to  organize  things  into  machines, 
and  men  into  industrial  States,  they  have  now  the  same 
controlling  force  in  the  practical  affairs  of  the  Teutonic 
nations,  —  yes,  of  Christendom,  —  which  the  Germans  have 
in  the  world  of  pure  thinking.  The  Anglo-Saxon  loves 
things ;  the  German  thoughts.  The  one  symbolizes  his 
individuality  by  a  visible  hedge  about  his  field,  distinguish- 
ing it  from  his  neighbor's  property;  the  other  by  some 
peculiar  idea  of  his  own ;  one  conquers  new  lands,  accumu- 
lates material  riches  and  founds  States ;  the  other  conquers 
ideas,  accumulates  vast  intellectual  treasures  and  founds  sys- 
tems of  philosophy  and  theology.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is 
singularly  direct,  simple  and  devoid  of  subtlety  ;•  his  mind, 
his  language  and  his  "government,  are  distinguished  for 
plainness  and  simplicity  —  for  absence  of  complication.  He 
seizes  things  by  their  great  relations,  and  seldom  understands 
the  nicer  complications  which  are  so  attractive  to  the  Ger- 
man. This  simplicity  appears  also  in  the  metaphysical  sys- 
tems of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  in  their  Theology.  There 
are  numerous  sects  in  their  churches;  but  they  depend  on 
obvious  and  palpable  differences,  not  on  nice  and  abstruse 
distinctions.  The  sects  differ  in  the  form  of  church-govern- 
ment—  by  Bishops,  by  Elders,  or  the  People;  in  the  form 
of  the  ritual — baptizing  in  babyhood,  or  in  manhood,  from 
a  porringer  or  a  pond ;  in  the  arithmetic  of  deity  —  consid- 
ering the  Godhead  as  one  person,  or  as  more  than  one ;  in 
the  damnation,  or  salvation  of  mankind.  These  and  similar 
differences,  easily  comprehended  by  any  one  who  can  count 


lii  INTRODUCTION. 

his  fingers,  are  the  matters  on  which  the  Anglo-Saxons 
divide  into  sects.  The  subtle  questions  which  vexed  the 
Greeks  in  the  Patristic  age,  the  Italians  and  Celts  in  the 
^Scholastic  age,  or  the  modern  Germans  in  the  Critical  age, 
;seldom  disturb  the  sturdy  and  straight-forward  intellect  of 
the  English  and  Americans,  intent  on  the  ultimatum  of 
practice,  not  the  process  of  speculation. 

This  great  tribe  of  the  Teutonic  family  —  distributed 
into  English  and  Americans  —  is  just  now  in  a  quite  interest- 
ing period  of  spiritual  development.  It  has  accepted  the 
traditional  Theology  of  the  Christian  Church  with  various 
superficial  modifications ;  has  taken  pains  not  to  improve 
this  Theology,  deeming  it  not  susceptible  of  improvement, 
not  amenable  to  the  mind  of  man.  And  it  has  now  come  to 
such  a  pass  that  there  is  a  plain  and  painful  contradiction 
between  the  Popular  Theology  and  the  consciousness  of  en- 
lightened men. 

In  England  the  majority  of  the  people  are  doubtless  open 
•dissenters  from  the  Established  Church.  It  is  not  easy  to 
estimate  the  amount  of  secret  dissent  in  that  Church  itself, 
or  of  private  disgust  at  the  Popular  Theology  in  the  ranks 
of  professing  dissenters.  But  to  judge  from  the  scientific, 
the  historical  and  the  esthetic  literature  of  England  for  the 
past  twenty  years,  and  from  the  avidity  with  which  profound 
treatises  that  show  the  insufficiency  of  this  Theology  have 
been  received,  it  is  plain  that  the  mind  of  that  country  no 
longer  accepts  the  Theology  of  the  churches.  The  nega- 
tions of  both  the  biblical  and  philosophical  Naturalists  of 
Germany,  have  had  a  rather  silent,  but  apparently  a  profound 
influence  on  the  theological  opinions  of  the  nation.  Eminent 
talent  seldom  appears  in  her  churches  —  established,  or  dis- 


INTRODUCTION.  liii 

senting.  They  are  not  tlic  centres  of  religious  life.  Valu- 
able institutions,  as  a  whole,  to  keep  the  average  men  from 
falling  back;  valuable  to  urge  some  of  the  hindmost  men 
forward,  they  yet  do  not  lead  the  nation  in  philanthropic 
and  religious  feeling,  in  theological  thought,  or  in  moral 
action;  and  accordingly  fail  of  the  threefold  function  of  a 
Church. 

In  America  no  form  of  religion  is  established  by  law ;  all 
the  world-sects,  as  well  as  all  the  Christian  sects,  are  theo- 
retically free  and  equal,  subject  to  the  same  economical  and 
ethical  supervision  of  the  civil  power.  This  circumstance 
has  been  eminently  advantageous  to  the  spiritual  growth  of 
the  people.  No  clergyman  can  appeal  to  the  bayonet  to 
enforce  his  feeble  argument,  or  to  bring  hearers  to  his 
church.  A  few  laws  depriving  men  of  certain  civil  rights 
if  they  lack  the  legal  minimum  of  religious  belief,  or  pun- 
ishing them  for  the  utterance  of  anti- Christian  opinions,  still 
live  on  the  statute  book,  but  they  are  eminently  exceptional 
in  this  country,  and  fast  becoming  obsolete.  All  is  left  to 
the  voluntary  activity  of  the  people.  The  immediate  prac- 
tical consequence  has  been  a  multiplication  of  churches,  of 
preachers  and  of  hearers.  No  Christian  country  of  large 
extent  is  so  well  furnished  with  meeting-houses  and  with 
clergymen ;  in  no  country  is  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
population  found  in  the  churches  on  Sunday ;  nowhere  is 
the  Bible,  with  religious  books  and  periodicals,  so  common, 
and  universally  diffused.  Theological  Seminaries  are 
erected  by  each  denomination,  and  the  means  provided  for 
educating,  up  to  the  level  of  the  nation,  such  talent  as 
moves  towards  the  pulpit.     Each  denomination  takes  great 


liv  INTRODUCTION. 

pains  with  the  ecclesiastical  training  of  the  children.    Compe- 
tition has  the  same  effect  in  the  churches  as  the  market. 

The  Americans  have  applied  the  first  principles  of  the 
Cartesian  method  in  philosophy  to  every  thing  except  what 
concerns  Theology  and  religion.  There  they  have  mainly 
consented  to  walk  by  the  old  traditions.  But  the  difference 
between  the  old  and  the  new,  between  the  intellectual  prin- 
ciples of  the  lyceum-lecturer,  and  those  of  the  theological 
preacher  holding  forth  on  the  same  theme,  from  the  same 
desk,  to  the  same  audience,  springs  in  the  eyes  of  all.  The 
contradiction  between  Theology  and  the  other  Sciences  is 
seen  and  understood,  by  a  large  class  of  intelligent  men ;  it 
is  felt,  but  not  understood,  by  a  much  larger  class,  men  of 
genuine  piety  who  reproach  themselves  because  they  doubt 
Ihe  miracles  of  the  Bible,  fail  to  relish  the  eternal  dam- 
nation of  men,  or  because  they  take  so  little  interest  in  the 
dull  routine  of  what  in  the  churches  is  called  religion. 
IVith  the  wide  spread  of  a  very  superficial  intellectual  cul- 
ture, and  with  the  immense  intellectual  activity  brought  out 
by  the  political  institutions  and  the  industrial  movements  of 
the  country,  a  great  amount  of  doubt  on  theological  matters 
ihas  also  been  developed.  Sometimes  it  is  public,  oftener  it 
is  secret.  But  it  is  plain  that  the  contradiction  between  the 
Theology  of  the  churches  and  the  science,  the  literature, 
the  philanthropy  and  the  piety  of  the  age,  is  very  widely 
felt  and  pretty  widely  understood. 

Clergymen  endeavor  to  solve  this  contradiction  in  two 
ways.  Men  of  one  party  attempt  to  put  man  down  and 
ibring  him  back  to  the  old  theology.  They  deride  new  piety ; 
they  rail  at  new  philanthropy ;  they  decry  science ;  and  at 


INTRODUCTION.  Iv 

each  new  comer  in  Theology  who  puts  his  yeasty  wine  into 
the  old  bottles  of  the  Church,  or,  still  worse,  into  others  of 
a  newer  make  and  pattern,  they  call  out  "  Infidel !  Atheist ! 
Away  with  him  !  "  But  they  have  no  physical  force  at  their 
command  as  in  continental  Europe.  It  is  almost  three  hun- 
dred years  since  Calvin  burnt  Unitarian  Servetus  alive  at 
the  stake,  where  now  a  Unitarian  college  teaches  the  obnox- 
ious opinion.  Quakers  and  Baptists  are  never  disturbed  in 
Boston  which  once  shed  the  blood  of  the  founders  of  these 
earnest  and  miportant  sects. 

The  other  party,  scanty  in  numbers,  endeavors  to  bring 
Theology  up  to  the  level  of  the  science  of  the  times,  and  to 
#igage  the  churches  in  new  piety  and  new  philanthropy. 

The  retrogressive  and  the  progressive  party  are  both 
needed ;  and  have  valuable  functions  to  perform.  There  is 
always  danger  that  some  good  things  should  be  left  behind ; 
and  not  only  feeble  and  timid  persons,  but  war-worn  veterans 
also,  are  therefore  properly  put  in  the  rear  of  the  human  army 
marching  to  the  promised  land  ;  else  baggage  might  be  aban- 
doned, and  even  stragglers  lost.  The  Christians  left  good 
things  behind  in  the  Hebrew  and  Heathen  cities  they  marched 
out  of,  or  passed  through ;  they  must  send  back  and  bring 
away  all  those  things.  The  Protestants  rejected  much  that 
was  excellent,  perhaps  indispensable  to  the  welfare  of  man- 
kind ;  so  pious  men  and  women  must  go  over  to  the  Latin 
Church  and  reclaim  it. 

How  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church,  with  its  many  denom- 
inations, performing  its  theological  and  religious  function  ? 
Certainly  not  very  well.  As  a  whole  it  rebukes  no  great 
popular  Sins ;  it  corrects  no  great  popular  Mistakes  and 
Errors.     The   Churches  of  England  and  America  do  not 


Ivi  IXTRODUCTION. 

rebuke  the  actual  evils  of  tliese  two  nations ;  thej  preach 
mainly  against  small  vices  whicli  the  controlling  classes  of 
the  people  have  little  temptation  to  commit.  In  England 
and  America,  the  strong  often  exploiter  the  weak,  con- 
sciously, or  ignorantly.  The  Anglo-Saxon,  —  whether  Bri- 
ton or  American,  —  has  a  most  inordinate  lust  for  land :  he 
wishes  to  annex  the  universe  to  his  estate.  How  has  Eng- 
land pillaged  India ;  how  has  America  plundered  Mexico, 
and  now  goes  "  fillibustering  "  towards  Cuba !  The  com- 
mercial policy  of  Christian  England  is  quite  as  selfish,  and 
almost  as  cruel,  as  the  military  policy  of  Heathen  Rome  — 
abroad  it  aims  to  impoverish  other  countries,  ruin  their 
manufactures  and  cripple  their  commerce,  in  order  to  heap  up 
enormous  riches  in  England;  at  home  it  aims  to  concentrate 
great  Avealth,  and  its  consequent  power,  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
strong  men  who  shall  exploiter  the  mass  of  the  people. 
The  policy  of  America  is  to  keep  one-seventh  part  of  the 
population  in  such  slavery  as  exists  nowhere  else  in  Chris- 
tendom ;  nay,  more,  the  Christian  "  Barbary  States  of 
America "  cherish  the  slavery  which  the  Mahometan  Bar- 
bary States  of  Africa  have  cast  off  with  scorn  and  loathing. 
The  English  and  American  churches  do  not  oppose  these 
Sins,  but  encourage  them. 

In  the  ante-Christian  governments  the  State  and  the 
Church  were  identical,  the  national  religion  was  prescribed 
by  the  national  law  and  enforced  by  the  sword  of  the  mag- 
istrate. The  function  of  official  priests  was  to  appease  the 
wrath  of  God,  or  purchase  his  favor;  it  was  not  to  develop 
the  spirit  of  the  people.  In  Rome,  such  was  the  eclectic 
spirit  of  the  nation,  all  forms  of  religion  were  allowed  to 


INTRODUCTION.  Ivii 

exist  along  with  the  national  religion,  so  long  as  tlioy  did 
not  disturb  the  peace  of  the  city.  But  when  Christianity 
came,  affirming  the  unity  of  God  and  the  falseness  of  all 
antecedent,  or  other,  forms  of  religion,  the  Roman  State,  in 
preserving  its  own  form  of  worship,  must  of  necessity 
attempt  to  suppress  the  Christian  religion.  Cliri.^tianity 
grew  up  in  ojiposition  to  the  magistrate.  So  there  were  at 
the  beginning  two  powers  in  the  nation  —  the  State,  the 
carnal  temporal  power ;  and  the  Cliurch,  —  the  spiritual 
power  whose  kingdom  was  "  not  of  this  Avorld."  When 
Christianity  became  a  lawful  religion,  and  when  it  became  the 
national  religion,  there  still  continued  this  division  between 
the  State  and  the  Church ;  two  distinct  organizations  were 
established,  the  " carnal "  and  the  "spiritual."  This  sepa- 
ration of  the  civil  and  religious  authorities  has  been  of  great 
value  to  the  world.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Church  was 
one  established  power,  and  the  State  another,  each  inde- 
pendent. The  Church  was  a  critic  and  check  upon  the 
State,  the  State  upon  the  Church.  Ecclesiastical  conformity 
was  often  political  dissent.  The  government  of  Christen- 
dom was  monarchic;  but  the  monarchy  was  two-headed. 
The  practical  effect  of  this  was  important,  in  many  respects, 
to  mankind.  But  in  the  Roman  States,  and  in  all  countries 
which  owed  exclusive  civil  obedience  to  the  Pope,  the 
Church  swallowed  up  the  State;  the  "  spiritual"  became  also 
the  "  carnal "  power,  and  the  people  were  ruled  with  terri- 
ble oppression.  The  same  result  took  place  when  the  "  car- 
nal "  became  the  "  religious "  power,  as  it  sometimes  did. 
In  both  of  these  cases  the  monarchy  became  single-headed ; 
the  State  and  the  Church  were  merged  into  one ;  there 
was  no  city  of  refuge  for  the  victim  of  the  magistrate,  or  of 


Ivill  INTRODUCTION. 

the  priest,  to  fly  to.  If  he  ran  from  the  king's  axe,  he  fell 
over  the  Pope's  faggot.  Thus  was  he  overtaken  by  one  or 
the  other  horn  of  the  tyrannical  dilemma,  and  if  he  escaped 
beheading  he  was  sure  to  be  burned.  In  countries  where 
this  division  of  powers  was  recognized,  the  man  fled  from 
the  court-house  to  the  temple,  or  from  the  temple  to 
the  court-house,  and  humanity  had  a  fairer  opportunity  to 
obtain  justice. 

But  when  the  scholastic  philosophers,  after  struggling  for 
centuries,  had  failed  to  reconcile  the  consciousness  of  man- 
kind with  the  dogmas  of  the  Church ;  when  the  Church 
itself  became  corrupt  in  head  and  members,  and  the  Priests 
of  Christendom  were  more  tyrannical  and  shameless  than 
the  magistrates  of  Heathendom,  then  human  consciousness 
broke  with  the  Roman  Church.  But  the  people,  long  ac- 
customed to  passive  submission  under  the  State  and  Church, 
gained  apparently  little  by  the  change.  The  kings,  or  other 
civil  magistrates,  took  possession  of  the  spiritual  power 
which  in  Protestant  countries  had  been  wrested  from  the 
hands  of  the  Pope.  Thus  as  the  Church  grew  weak  the 
State  again  grew  strong,  and  assumed  the  same  authority  in 
matters  of  religion  which  had  formerly  been  claimed  by  the 
Pope  in  Christian,  or  by  the  king  in  Heathen  countries. 
This  was  not  effected  without  a  struggle.  In  some  countries 
the  spiritual  power,  in  carnal  hands,  became  absolute ;  in 
others  it  was  conditioned  by  a  constitution ;  but  in  all  the 
countries  of  Protestant  Europe  the  State  still  claims  eminent 
domain  over  the  Church,  prescribes  the  ritual  and  establishes 
the  creed.  Thus  in  Prussia  the  king  demands  that  every  man 
shall  be  a  soldier  and  a  church-member ;  he  is  drilled  in 
the  manual  exercise  and  the  catechism.     Even  England  has 


INTRODUCTION.  lix 

her  national  religion,  and  rejects  -svitli  scorn  from  her  two 
wealthy  universities  all  who  cannot  snbscribe  to  the  contra- 
dictory formularies  of  belief:  though  she  allows  dissent,  she 
by  no  means  admits  the  dissenters  to  an  equality  with  the 
disciples  of  her  own  Church,  in  which  the  aristocratic  ele- 
ment preponderates  over  the  popular  —  for  the  congregation 
is  only  of  "  dead  heads,"  -sYhich  have  no  voice  in  making  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  or  even  in  electing  its  minister. 

In  this  way  the  Protestant  Church  of  Europe  has  lost 
one  of  its  most  valuable  functions  —  it  is  no  longer  a  critic 
on  the  State,  it  is  the  servant  and  creature  of  the  State.  If 
the  magistrates  are  corrupt,  the  laws  unjust  and  oppressive, 
the  clergy  dare  not  say  a  w^ord  against  the  iniquity.  The 
Bench  of  Bishops  is  seldom  found  to  be  more  humane  than 
the  House  of  Lords  where  it  sits ;  and  the  Protestant  Pul- 
pit, in  these  countries,  takes  special  care  not  to  rebuke  any 
popular  Error  or  Sin.  So  the  established  church  in  Protes- 
tant countries  is  commonly  found  siding  with  government 
and  not  with  the  people:  it  attends  to  the  form  —  the 
ritual  and  the  creed  —  not  to  the  substance  of  religion.  It 
does  not  demand  a  free  mind,  free  conscience,  free  aifection, 
and  a  free  soul,  all  in  their  normal  mode  of  activity. 

In  America  there  is  no  state-religion  and  no  national 
Church.  Each  denomination  determines  its  creed  for  itself, 
and  manages  its  own  affairs.  But  such  is  the  dependence 
of  the  preacher  on  his  parish  for  pecuniary  support,  and  so 
much  is  that  thought  to  depend  on  servility  to  the  controll- 
ing and  wealthy  classes  of  society,  that  any  popular  wicked- 
ness is  pretty  sure  of  the  support  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
American  clergy.  This  is  eminently  the  case  in  the  great 
towns  —  the  seat  of   riches,  of   commercial   and  political 


Ix  INTRODUCTION. 

power.  The  minister  may  forget  his  God,  his  conscience, 
his  self-respect ;  he  must  not  attempt  to  correct  "  the  hand 
that  feeds  him."  Slavery,  the  great  sin  of  America,  has  long 
found  its  most  effectual  support  in  the  American  Church. 
The  powerful  denominations  are  on  its  side,  the  Tract  So- 
ciety says  nothing  against  it ;  the  leaders  of  the  sects,  with 
the  rarest  exception,  are  in  favor  of  this  wickedness.  When 
prominent  political  men  deny  that  there  is  any  law  of  God 
to  overrule  the  most  wicked  enactment  of  corrupt  politicians, 
the  wealthy  churches  say  "  Amen  !  " 

In  England  the  churches  seem  no  better ;  they  can  rebuke 
American,  but  not  British  Sins,  as  the  American  British 
and  not  their  own.  In  the  military  age  the  spiritual  and 
carnal  powers  were  independent  of  each  other,  and  mutual 
checks;  in  the  commercial  age  the  Spiritual  depends  on 
the  carnal  power  for  daily  bread,  and  dares  not  offend  the 
hand  that  feeds  it ;  forgetting  the  Eye  which  "  seeth  not  as 
man  seeth."  The  great  theological  movement  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  the  great  religious  movement,  is  not  carried  on  by 
the  churches  but  in  spite  of  them. 


To  sum  up  the  theological  and  religious  condition  of  the 
Protestant  countries  as  a  whole,  it  must  be  confessed  that 
there  is  a  great  contradiction  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
people;  that  the  Popular  Theology  is  at  variance  with 
the  other  sciences,  and  is  fading  from  the  respect  of 
the  people.  A  great  intellectual  movement  goes  on,  a 
great  moral,  philanthropic  and  religious  movement,  but 
the  preachers  in  the  churches  do  little  directly  either  -to 
diffuse  new  truths,  or  to  kindle  a  deeper  sentiment  of  piety, 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixi 

or  pliilantliropy.  .  The  Protestant  Clmrcli  counts  this  its 
chief  function  —  to  appease  the  wrath  of  God  and  to  adminis- 
ter the  Scriptures  to  men,  not  to  promote  piety  and  morality. 


Take  the  whole  Christian  world  at  this  day  —  where  is 
the  vigor,  the  energy,  the  faith  in  God,  the  love  for  man^ 
which  marked  the  lives  of  those  persons  who  built  churches 
with  their  lives  ?  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  clergy  of  Christen- 
dom oppose  the  foremost  science,  justice,  philanthropy,  and 
piety  of  the  age.  The  ecclesiastical  institutions  seem  to  bear 
the  same  relation  to  mankind  now,  as  the  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions of  the  Hebrews  and  Heathens  two  thousand  years  ago. 
Every  year  the  Science  of  the  scholar  separates  him  further 
and  further  from  the  Theology  of  the  churches.  The  once 
united  Church  is  rent  into  three.  The  infallibility  of  the 
Eoman  Church  —  who  believes  it?  the  Pope,  the  superior 
Catholic  clergy  ?  The  Infallibility  of  the  Bible,  —  its  divine 
origin,  its  miraculous  inspiration  —  do  the  Scholars  of 
Christendom  believe  that  in  defiance  of  Mathematics,  Phy- 
sics, History  and  Psychology  ?  They  leave  it  to  the  clergy. 
The  Trinity  is  shaken ;  men  lose  their  faith  in  the  efficacy 
of  water-baptism,  and  other  artificial  sacraments,  to  save 
the  souls  of  men ;  miracles  disappear  from  the  belief  of  all 
but  the  clergy.  Do  they  believe  them?  The  Catholic 
doubts  the  meliaival  miracles  of  his  own  Church;  it  is  in 
vain  that  the  Virgin  Mary  reappears  in  Switzerland  and 
F]-ance ;  that  Saint  Januarius  annually  liquifies  his  blood ;; 
that  statues  weep  ;  the  stomachs  of  reapers  refuse  such 
bread.  It  avails  nothing  to  threaten  scientific  doubters 
with  eternal  hell.     Superior  talent  forsakes  the  Church,  — 


Ixii  IXTRODUCTIOX. 

even  in  Catliolic  countries,  there  are  few  clergymen  of 
genius,  or  even  great  talent.  In  Protestant  Germany 
theological  genius  teaches  in  the  college,  not  in  the  pulpit  5 
and  with  new  science  destroys  the  mediaeval  opinions  it  was 
once  set  to  defend,  Will  the  spirit  of  the  human  race  come 
bach  and  reanimate  the  dry  bones  of  dead  Theology  ?  When 
the  mummies  of  ^gypt  shall  worship  again  their  half-for- 
gotten gods  —  Osiris,  Orus,  Apis,  Isis  ;  when  mankind  goes 
back  to  the  other  sciences  of  half-savage  life  the  Theology 
of  that  period  may  be  welcomed  again.     Not  till  then. 

Is  religion  to  die  out  of  the  consciousness  of  man  !  Be- 
lieve it  not.  Even  the  protests  against  "Christianity"  are 
oftenest  made  by  men  full  of  the  religious  spirit.  Many  of 
the  "  Unbelievers,"  of  this  age  are  eminent  for  their  religion  ; 
atheists  are  often  made  such  by  circumstances.  M.  Comte 
must  have  a  New  Supreme  —  Nouveau  Grand  Etre,  —  and 
recommends  daily  prayer  to  his  composite  and  progressive 
deity.  There  was  never  a  time  when  Christendom  was  so 
pious  —  in  love  of  God ;  so  philanthropic  —  in  love  of  man ; 
so  moral  —  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  God;  so  intellectual 

—  knowing  it  so  well ;  so  rich  —  possessing  such  power  over 
the  material  world.  Yet  through  lack  of  a  true  idea  of 
God,  from  want  of  institutions  to  teach  and  apply  the  Abso- 
lute Religion  —  there  is  not  that  conscious  and  total  religious 
activity  which  is  indispensable  for  the  healthy  and  harmo- 
nious development  of  mankind. 

"What  need  there  is  of  a  new  religious  life !  The  three 
great  public  forces  of  the  leading  nations  of  Christendom, 

—  Business,  Politics,  and  the  Press,  excite  a  great  intellec- 
tual activity.  Christendom  was  never  so  thoughtful  as 
now.     Shall  this  great  movement  of  mind  be  unreligious, 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixili 

without  consciousness  of  God?  It  will  not  be  controlled  by 
the  Theology  of  the  Christian  Church.  But  it  is  not  a 
wicked  age.  What  philanthropies  are  there  new  born  in  our 
time  ?  Catholic  France  is  rich  in  the  literature  of  charity, 
shaming  the  haughtiness  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church.  Yet 
Avithin  not  many  years  at  w^hat  great  cost  has  England  set 
free  almost  a  million  men  "owned"  as  slaves  !  Nay,  Rus- 
sian Nicholas  emancipates  his  serfs.  Socialists  seek  to 
abolish  poverty,  and  all  the  curses  it  brings  on  the  body  and 
the  spirit  of  man.  Wise  men  begin  to  see  that  the  majority 
of  criminals  are  the  victims  of  society  more  than  its  foes,  and 
seek  to  abolish  the  causes  of  crime ;  what  pains  are  taken 
with  the  poor,  the  crazy,  the  lame,  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the 
dumb  ;  nay,  with  the  fool !  Great  men  look  at  the  condition 
of  woman  —  and  generous  hearted  women  rise  up  to  eman- 
cipate their  sex.  The  churches  are  busy  wdth  their  The- 
ology and  their  ritual,  and  cannot  attend  much  to  these  great 
humane  movements ;  they  must  appease  the  "  wa-ath  of 
God,"  or  baptize  men's  bodies  wdth  water  and  their  minds 
with  wind.  Still  the  work  goes  on,  but  without  a  corres- 
ponding consciousness  of  God,  and  connection  with  the 
religious  emotions.  No  wonder  Christendom  seems  tending 
to  anarchy.  But  it  is  only  the  anarchy  which  comes  of  the 
breaking  up  of  darkness. 

There  must  be  a  better  form  of  religion.  It  must  be 
free,  and  welcome  the  highest,  the  proudest,  and  the  widest 
thought.  Its  organization  must  not  depend  on  the  State ; 
it  must  ask  no  force  to  bring  men  to  church,  to  control  a- 
man's  opinion,  to  tell  him  on  what  day  he  shall  worship, 
when  he  shall  pray,  what  he  shall  believe,  what  he  shall  dis- 
believe, or  what  he  shall  denounce. 


Ixiv  INTRODUCTION. 

The  Christian  world  has  something  to  learn  at  this  day, 
even  from  the  Atheist ;  for  he  asks  entire  Freedom  for 
human  nature,  —  freedom  to  think,  freedom  to  Avill,  freedom 
to  love,  freedom  to  worship  if  he  may,  not  to  worship  if  he 
will  not.  And  if  the  Christian  Church  had  granted  this 
freedom  there  would  have  been  no  atheism.  If  Theology 
had  not  severed  itself  from  Science,  Science  would  have 
adorned  the  Church  with  its  magnificent  beauty.  If  the 
Christian  Church  had  not  separated  itself  from  the  world's 
life  there  would  be  no  need  of  anti-slavery  societies,  tem- 
perance societies,  education  societies,  and  all  the  thousand 
other  forms  of  philanthropic  action.  A  new  religious  life 
can  beautify  all  these  movements  into  one.  There  is  one 
great  truth  which  can  do  it :  that  God  is  not  finite,  as  all 
previous  forms  of  religion  have  taught,  but  is  Infinite  in  his 
power,  in  his  wisdom,  in  his  justice,  in  his  holiness,  and  in 
his  love. 

It  is  for  earnest  men  of  this  age  to  protest  against  the 
evils  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  Luther  against  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  as  Paul  against  the  Heathen,  as  Christ  against 
the  Hebrew  Church.  This  can  be  done  only  by  a  Piety 
deeper,  a  Philanthropy  wider,  and  a  Theology  profounder 
than  the  Clmrch  has  ever  known ;  by  a  life  which,  like 
Luther's,  Paul's,  Christ's,  puts  the  vulgar  life  of  the 
churches  all  to  shame.  The  new  Church  must  gather  to  its 
bosom  all  the  truth,  the  righteousness  and  beauty  of  the  old 
world,  and  add  other  excellence  new  got  from  God.  Piety 
must  be  applied  to  all  daily  life,  to  politics,  to  literature,  to 
all  business :  it  must  be  the  creed  which  a  man  repeats  as 
he  hands  goods  over  his  counter,  repeats  with  his  hands, 
which  he  works  into    every  thing   that   he    manufactures. 


INTRODUCTION.  1\V 

That  is  a  Ticty  already  on  its  way  to  success,  and  sure  to 
triumph. 

There  are  evils  which  demand  a  religious  hand  to  I'edress 
them.  The  slave  is  to  be  freed,  the  State  and  Society  to 
be  reorganized ;  woman  is  to  be  elevated  to  her  natural 
place ;  political  corruption  to  be  buried  in  its  grave.  Pau- 
perism is  to  end,  war  to  cease,  and  the  insane  lust  of  our 
times  for  gold  and  pleasure  is  to  be  tamed  and  corrected. 
This  can  be  done  only  by  a  deep  religious  life  in  the  heart 
of  the  people.     All  great  civilizations  begin  with  God. 

It  is  a  sad  thing  to  look  at  the  noble  and  large  minded 
men  who  in  this  century  have  become  disgusted  with  the 
Popular  Theology,  and  so  have  turned  off  from  all  conscious 
religion.  In  a  better  age  they  would  have  been  leaders  of 
the  world's  piety.  It  is  for  men  who  have  sought  to  cut 
loose  from  every  false  tradition,  to  worship  the  Infinite  Father 
and  Infinite  Mother !  They  may  scold,  and  are  then  the 
Church  termagant,  worth  nothing  but  their  criticism.  They 
may  toil  to  remove  these  evils,  their  life  making  a  new 
Church,  and  then  they  are  the  Church  beneficent;  their 
influence  will  go  into  the  world's  life,  and  hasten  the  devel- 
opment of  mankind. 

How  much  does  all  Christendom  need  a  new  form  of 
religion,  to  reconcile  the  understanding,  to  bring  the  con- 
science, and  the  heart,  and  the  soul,  to  the  great  work 
of  life  !  Then  if  men  are  faithful,  when  eighteen  hundred 
other  years  have  passed  by,  they  will  have  produced 
an  influence  in  the  world's  history  like  that  of  the  great 
Christian  apostle,  who  went  to  the  Gentiles  so  poor  and  so 
obscure  that  no  man  knows  of  his  whereabouts,  or  his  whence, 
or  his  whither.     Xow,  as  of  old,  "  God  hath   chosen  the 


Ixvi  IXTRODLX'TIUX. 

weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  tlie  mighty,"  and  the 
true  to  confound  the  false.  There  is  no  reason  to  fear. 
The  Infinite  God  is  perfect  Cause  and  perfect  Providence ; 
He  made  tlie  universe  from  a  perfect  motive,  of  perfect  ma- 
terials, for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto. 
Shall  He  fail  of  his  intentions  ?  Man  m.arches  forth  to 
fresh  triumphs  in  religion  as  in  philosophy  and  art.  AVhat 
is  gained  once  is  gained  for  all  time,  and  for  eternity. 
Hebraism,  Heathenism,  Christianism  are  places  where  man 
halted  in  his  march  towards  the  Promised  Land,  encamp- 
ments on  his  pilgrimage.  He  rests  awhile ;  then  God  says 
to  him,  "  long  enough  hast  thou  compassed  this  Mountain ; 
turn  and  take  thy  journey  forward.  Lo !  the  Land  of  Prom- 
ise is  still  before  thee."  In  the  anarchy  of  this  age  are  we 
taught  to  feel 

"  That  man's  heart  is  a  holy  thing, 

And  Nature,  through  a  M'orld  of  death, 
Breathes  into  him  a  second  breath, 
iSIore  searching  than  tlie  breath  of  spring." 


SERMONS. 


OF  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM,  EEGARDED  AS  A 
THEORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


THE  FOOL  HATH  SAID  IX  HIS  HEART,  THERE  IS  NO  GOD. 

Psalm  xiv  :  1 . 

On  this  and  several  following  Sundays  I  propose 
to  speak  of  Atheism,  of  the  Popular  Theology,  and 
of  pure  Theism.  Of  each  first  as  a  Theory  of  the 
Universe,  and  then  as  a  Principle  of  practical  life ; 
first  as  speculative  Philosophy,  then  as  practical 
Ethics. 

The  Idea  which  a  man  forms  of  God  is  always 
the  most  important  element  in  his  speculative  theory 
of  the  universe,  and  in  his  particular,  practical  plan 
of  action  for  the  church,  the  state,  the  community, 
the  family,  and  his  own  individual  life.  You  see 
to-day  the  vast  influence  of  the  popular  idea  of 
God.  All  the  gi-eat  historical  civilizations  of  the 
race  have  grown  out  of  the  national  idea  which 
was  formed  of  God,  or  have  been  intimately  con- 
nected with  it.      The  popular  Theology,  which  at 


4  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

first  is  only  an  abstract  idea  in  the  heads  of  the 
philosophers,  by  and  by  shows  itself  in  the  laws,  the 
navies,  the  forts,  and  the  jails ;  in  the  churches,  the 
ceremonies,  and  the  sacraments,  the  weddings,  the 
baptisms,  and  the  funerals ;  in  the  hospitals,  the  col- 
leges, the  schools,  in  all  the  social  charities ;  in  the 
relation  of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  child ;  in 
the  daily  work  and  the  daily  prayer  of  each  man. 
Thus,  what  at  first  is  the  absti-actest  of  thoughts,  by 
and  by  becomes  the  concretest  of  things.  If  a  man 
concludes  there  is  no  God  at  all,  that  conclusion, 
negative  though  it  is,  will  have  an  immense  influ- 
ence ;  subjectively  on  his  feelings  and  opinions, 
objectively  on  his  outward  conduct;  subjectively 
as  the  theory  of  the  universe  ;  objectively  as  the 
principle  of  practical  life. 

Speculative  Theism  is  the  belief  in  the  existence 
of  God,  in  one  form  or  another ;  and  I  call  him  a 
Theist  who  believes  in  any  Grod.  By  Atheism  I 
mean  absolute  denial  of  the  existence  of  any  God. 
A  man  may  deny  actuality  to  the  Hebrew  idea  of 
God,  to  the  Christian  idea  of  God,  or  to  the  Mahom- 
etan idea  of  God,  and  yet  be  no  atheist. 

The  Hebrews  formed  a  certain  conception  of  a 
being  with  many  good  qualities,  and  some  extra- 
ordinary bad  qualities,  and  called  it  Jehovah,  and 
said,  "That  is  God:  it  is  the  only  God."  The 
majority  of  Christians  form  a  certain  conception  of 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  O 

a  being  with  more  good  qualities  than  are  ascribed 
to  Jehovah,  but  with  some  most  atrociously  evil 
qualities,  and  call  it  Trinity,  or  Unity,  and  say,  — 
"  That  is  God ;  the  only  God." 

Now  a  man  may  deny  the  actuality  of  either  or 
both  these  ideas  of  God,  and  yet  be  no  atheist.  He 
may  do  so  because  he  is  more  of  a  theist  than  the 
majority  of  Hebrews  or  Christians  ;  because  he  has 
a  higher  development  of  the  religious  faculty,  and 
has  thereby  obtained  a  better  idea  of  God.  Thus 
the  Old  Testament  prophets,  with  a  religious  de- 
velopment often  far  in  advance  of  their  Gentile 
neighbors,  declared,  that  Baal  was  no  God.  Of 
course,  the  worshippers  of  Baal  called  the  Hebrew 
prophets  atheists,  for  they  denied  all  the  God  these 
Gentiles  knew.  Paul,  in  the  New  Testament,  more 
of  a  theist  than  the  Greeks  and  Asiatics  about  him, 
with  a  larger  religious  development  than  they 
dreamed  of,  said,  —  "  an  Idol  is  nothing."  That  is, 
there  is  no  being  which  corresponds  exactly  to  the 
qualities  ascribed  to  an  idol.  Their  idea  of  God, 
said  Paul,  lacked  actuality;  it  was  a  personal  or 
national  whimsey  ;  not  a  perfect  subjective  repre- 
sentation of  the  objective  fact  of  the  universe  ;  but 
only  a  mistaken  idea  about  that  fact. 

If  a  man  has  outgrown  the  Hebrew,  or  common 

Christian  idea  of  God,  he  may  say  what  Paul  said 

of  the  Idol  —  "It  is  nothing."     He  will  not  be  an 

atheist,   but  a   theist  all  the   more.     The    superior 

1* 


b  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

conception  of  God  always  nullifies  the  inferior  con- 
ception. 

Thus  as  the  world  grows  in  its  development,  it 
necessarily  outgrows  its  ancient  ideas  of  God,  which 
were  only  temporary  and  provisional.  As  it  goes 
-forward,  the  ancient  deities  are  looked  on  first  as 
devils  ;  next  as  a  mere  mistaken  notion  which  some 
men  had  formed  about  God.  For  example,  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  it  was  the  custom  of  the  learned  men 
of  the  Christian  church  to  speak  of  the  Heathen 
deities,  —  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Venus,  and  the  rest, — 
as  Devils.  They  did  not  deny  the  actual  exist- 
ance  of  those  beings,  only  affirmed  them  to  be  not 
Gods  but  devils  or  "  fallen  angels  ;  "  at  any  rate,  evil 
beings.  Some  of  the  heretics  among  the  early 
Christians  said  the  same  of  the  Hebrew  Jehovah , 
that  he  was  not  the  true  God,  but  only  a  Devil  who 
misled  the  Jews.  Now-a-days  well  educated  men 
who  still  use  the  terms,  say  that  Jupiter,  Apollo, 
Venus,  and  the  others,  were  only  mistaken  notions 
which  men  formed  of  God.  They  deny  the  actuafity 
of  the  idea,  "  Jupiter  is  nothing."  A  man  who  has  a 
higher  conception  of  God  than  those  about  him 
who  denies  their  conception,  is  often  called  an 
atheist  by  men  who  are  less  theistic  than  he.  Thus 
the  Christians,  who  said  the  Heathen  idols  were  no 
gods,  were  accounted  atheists  by  the  people,  and  ac- 
cordingly put  to  death.  Thus  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  accused  of  blasphemy  and  crucified   by  men 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  7 

who  lifid  not  a  tithe  of  the  religious  development  and 
reverence  for  God  which  he  possessed.  The  men 
who  centuries  ago  denied  the  actuality  of  the 
Trinity,  were  put  to  death  as  atheists, —  Servetus 
among  the  rest,  John  Calvin  himself  tending  the 
flames. 

At  this  day  the  Devil  is  a  part  of  the  popular 
Godhead  in  the  common  theology,  representing  the 
malignant  element  w^iich  still  belongs  to  the  eccle- 
siastical conception  of  Deity.  If  a  man  says  there  is 
no  devil,  he  is  thought  to  be,  if  not  an  atheist,  at 
least  very  closely  related  to  an  atheist.  He  denies  a 
portion  of  the  popular  Godhead ;  is  constructively 
an  atheist ;  an  atheist  as  far  as  he  goes ;  atheistic  in 
kind,  as  much  as  if  he  denied  the  whole  Godhead, 
when  he  would  obviously  be  branded  an  atheist 

I  use  the  word  Atheism  in  quite  a  different  sense. 
It  is  the  absolute  denial  of  any  and  all  forms  of  God  ; 
the  denial  of  the  Genus  ;  the  denial  of  all  possible 
ideas  of  God  —  highest  as  well  as  lowest 

At  this  day  there  are  some  philosophers,  quite 
eminent  men  too,  who  call  themselves  atheists,  and 
in  set  terms,  deny  the  actuality  of  any  possible  idea 
of  God.  They  say  the  idea  of  God  is  a  whimsey 
of  men,  and  God  is  not  a  fact  of  the  universe.  Man 
has  a  notion  of  God,  as  of  a  ghost,  or  devil ;  but  it  is 
a  pm*e  whimsey,  —  something  w^hich  he  has  spun 
out  of  his  own  brain,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 


8  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

universe  to  correspond  thereto.  Man  has  an  idea  of 
God,  but  the  universe  has  no  fact  of  God. 

These  men  do  not  mean  to  scoff  at  others.  They 
teach  their  doctrines  with  the  calmness  and  precision 
of  philosophy,  and  affirm  atheism  as  then*  theory  of 
the  universe.  It  is  a  conclusion  they  have  delibe- 
rately ai-rived  at.  They  are  not  ashamed  of  it ;  they 
do  not  conceal  it ;  do  not  ostentatiously  set  it  forth. 

I  am  doing  these  men  no  injustice  in  giving  them 
this  name,  because  they  claim  the  style  and  title  of 
atheists,  and  professedly  teach  atheism.  They  are 
not  always  bigoted  atheists,  but  philosophical.  A 
few  of  them  are  in  this  country,  founding  schools 
and  sects  of  their  way  of  thinking.  Some  of  them 
are  men  of  quite  superior  ability,  men  of  very  large 
intellectual  culture.  They  seem  to  be  truth-loving 
and  sincere  persons ;  conscientious,  just,  humane, 
philanthropic,  and  modest  men.  They  are  men 
who  aim  to  be  faithful  to  their  nature,  and  to  their 
whole  nature.  I  am  acquainted  with  some  of  them  ; 
they  are  commonly  on  the  side  of  man,  as  opposed 
to  the  enemies  of  man ;  on  the  side  of  the  people, 
as  against  a  tyrant :  they  are,  or  mean  to  be,  on  the 
side  of  truth,  of  justice,  and  of  love.  I  shall  not 
throw  stones  at  these  men  ;  I  shall  devise  no  hard 
names  against  them :  they  will  get  abuse  enough 
without  my  giving  them  any  at  all.  I  feel  great 
tenderness  towards  them,  and  very  great  compas- 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  9 

sion  —  which  I  suppose  they  would  not  thank  me 
for.  Some  of  them  I  know  personally ;  others  by 
their  reputation;  some  by  their  writings.  I  think 
they  are  much  higher  in  their  moral  and  religious 
growth  than  a  great  many  men  who  are  always  say- 
ing to  God,  —  "I  go,  sir," — and  yet  never  stir. 
These  are  men  who  have  made  sacrifices  even,  to  be 
faithful ;  and,  without  knowing  it,  they  have  a  good 
deal  of  practical  religiousness  of  character,  both  in 
its  subjective  form  of  piety,  and  in  its  objective  form 
of  personal  and  social  morality. 

I  do  not  believe  that  such  men  are  real  atheists, 
though  they  think  themselves  so ;  and  I  only  call 
them  so  to  distinguish  their  doctrines,  and  because 
they  themselves  like  the  name.  I  think  the  philoso- 
phical atheist  lacks  actuality  as  much  as  the  idea  of 
the  devil,  or  a  ghost. 

The  Bible  says,  "  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart, 
There  is  no  God."  If  the  fool  says  so,  I  shall  believe 
the  fool  thinks  so ;  and  if  the  fool  holds  up  his 
five  fingers  and  says  he  has  no  hand,  I  shall 
believe  the  fool  thinks  so.  But  when  a  philosopher 
says  there  is  no  God,  I  do  not  believe  he  thinks  so, 
only  that  he  thinks  he  thinks  so.  A  man  may  some- 
times think  he  sees  a  thing  when  he  does  not  see  it ; 
and  so  a  man  may  think  he  thinks  a  thin^  when  he 
does  not  think  it.  A  philosophical  and  consistent 
atheist  is  as  much  an  impossibility,  I  think,  as  a  math- 
ematician who  cannot  count  two  ;  or  as  a  round 


10  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

square,  or  a  three-cornered  circle.  I  shall  never  believe 
that  a  sane  man  who  can  understand  the  multiplica- 
tion table  is  an  atheist,  though  he  may  call  himself  so, 
and  claim  atheism  as  his  theory  of  the  universe.  But 
inasmuch  as  this  is  set  up  as  a  theory  of  the 
universe,  let  us  look  at  it,  and  see  what  real  Specu- 
lative Atheism  is.     That  is  the  first  thing. 


There  is  a  mere  formal  atheism,  which  is  a  denial 
of  God  in  terms.  A  man  says.  There  is  no  God ; 
no  God  that  is  self-originated,  who  is  the  Cause  of 
existence,  who  is  the  Mind  and  the  Providence  of  the 
universe :  and  so  the  order,  beauty,  and  harmony  of 
the  world  of  matter  or  mind  does  not  indicate  any 
plan  or  purpose  of  Deity.  But,  he  says.  Nature,  — 
meaning  by  that  the  whole  sum  total  of  existence,  — 
that  is  powerful,  wise,  and  good ;  Nature  is  self- 
originated,  the  Cause  of  its  own  existence,  the  IVIind 
of  the  universe,  and  the  Providence  thereof.  There  is 
obviously  a  plan  and  purpose,  says  he,  whereby  order, 
beauty,  and  harmony  are  brought  to  pass ;  but  all 
that  is  the  plan  and  purpose  of  Nature. 

Very  well.  In  such  cases  the  absolute  denial  of 
God  is  only  formal,  but  not  real.  The  Quality  of 
God  is  still  admitted,  and  affirmed  to  be  real ;  only 
the  representative  of  that  quality  is  called  Nature, 
and  not  called  God.  That  is  only  a  change  of  name. 
The  question  is  this,  —  "  Are  there  such  Qualities  in 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  11 

existence  as  we  call  God  ?  "  It  is  not,  —  How  shall 
we  name  the  qualities  ?  "  One  man  may  call  the 
sum  total  of  these  qualities  Nature,  another  Heaven, 
a  third  Universe,  a  fourth  Matter,  a  fifth  Spirit,  a 
sLxth  Geist,  a  seventh  God,  an  eighth  Theos,  a  ninth 
Allah,  or  what  he  pleases.  Spinoza  may  call  God 
Natura  naturans,  and  the  rest  of  the  universe  Natura 
naturata ;  Berosus  may  call  God  El,  and  the  rest  of 
the  Universe  Thebal.  They  all  admit  the  existence 
of  the  thing  so  diversely  named.  The  name  is  of  the 
smallest  consequence.  All  these  men  that  I  know, 
who  call  themselves  atheists,  really  admit  the  actual 
existence  of  the  qualities  I  speak  of. 

Real  Atheism  is  a  denial  of  the  existence  of  any 
God  ;  a  denial  of  the  Genus  God,  of  the  actuality  of 
all  possible  ideas  of  God.  It  denies  that  there  is 
any  Mind  or  Being  which  is  the  Cause  and  Provi- 
dence of  the  universe,  and  which  intentionally 
produces  the  order,  beauty,  and  harmony  thereof 
with  tlie  constant  modes  of  operation  therein.  To 
be  consistent  it  ought  to  go  a  step  further,  and  deny 
that  there  is  any  law,  order,  or  harmony  in  existence, 
or  any  constant  modes  of  operation  in  the  world. 
The  real  Speculative  Atheist  denies  the  existence  of 
the  qualities  of  God  ;  denies  that  there  is  any  Mind 
of  the  universe,  any  self-conscious  Providence,  any 
Providence  at  all.  If  he  follows  out  his  principle  he 
must  deny  the  actuality  of  the  Infinite,  deny  that 
there  is  any  Being  or  Cause  of  finite  things  which  is 


12  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

self-consciously  powerful,  wise,  just,  loving,  and  self- 
faithful.  To  him  there  are  only  finite  things, —  each 
self-originated,  self-sustained,  self-directed,  —  and  no 
more  ;  the  universe,  comprising  the  world  of  matter, 
and  the  world  of  mind,  is  a  finite  whole,  made  up 
of  finite  parts  ;  each  part  is  imperfect,  the  whole  in- 
complete ;  the  finite  has  no  Infinite  to  depend  on  as 
its  Ground  and  Cause ;  there  is  no  plan  in  the 
universe  or  any  part  thereof. 


Now  see  the  subjective  Efiect  of  this  Theory.  By 
subjective,  I  mean  the  effect  it  produces  on  the  senti- 
ments and  opinions  within  me. 

I.  Look  at  it  first  as  a  Theory  of  the  World  of 
Matter. 

In  respect  to  the  Origin  of  matter,  both  theists 
and  atheists  labor  under  the  same  difficulty.  Neither 
atheist  nor  theist  knows  any  thing  about  that.  I 
know  men,  chiefly  theologians,  pretend  to  under- 
stand all  about  the  creation  of  matter  originally; 
and  to  hear  them  talk  you  would  suppose  it  was  as 
easy  to  comprehend  how  God  made  a  world  out  of 
nothing,  as  it  is  to  understand  how  a  tailor  makes  a 
coat  out  of  broadcloth  or  velvet.  But  if  a  man  looks 
with  a  philosophical  eye,  he  sees  this  is  an  extraordi- 
narily difficult  thing.  The  philosophical  theist  admits 
the  existence  of  the  universe,  and  the  atheist  does 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  13 

SO ;  but  in  the  present  state  of  our  knowledge 
neither  atheist  nor  theist  knows  the  mode  of  origina- 
tion. You  may  go  back  a  good  ways  and  study  the 
origin  of  an  cgg^  a  fish,  seed,  tree,  or  rock,  or  the 
solar  system ;  after  the  fashion  of  La  Place  ;  but  the 
manner  of  originating  matter,  out  of  which  the  egg^ 
fish,  seed,  tree,  rock,  and  solar  system  are  made,  is 
just  as  far  off  as  ever ;  and  it  seems  to  be  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  faculties  of  man  :  I  will  not  say  that 
it  is  so,  only,  in  the  present  stage  of  man's  develop- 
ment and  scientific  acquirements,  it  seems  so.  The 
origin  of  Body,  —  of  any  specific  form  of  matter,  — 
may  be  made  out,  but  the  origin  of  Matter,  the  primi- 
tive, universal  substance  whereof  Body  is  made,  still 
eludes  our  search.  I  know  that  theological  theists 
often  call  the  philosophical  atheist  very  hard  names 
because  he  denies  that  we  can  understand  this 
process  at  present ;  the  charge  is  gratuitous. 

But  the  real  speculative  atheist  must  declare  that 
Matter,  the  general  substance  whereof  Body  is  made, 
is  eternal  but  without  thought,  or  will  ;  and  the 
specific  forms  of  existence  —  of  egg,  fish,  seed,  tree, 
rock,  and  solar  system  —  all  came  with  no  fore- 
thought preceding  them  ;  came  "  by  chance  ;  "  that 
is  to  say,  by  the  ^'  fortuitous  concourse  of  matter  " 
which  has  no  thought  or  will,  and  that  they  indi- 
cate no  mind,  no  plan,  no  purpose,  no  providence. 
That  is  their  theory  of  the  universe  ;  compare  it  with 
facts. 

2 


14  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

See  how  this  scheme  works  on  a  great  scale  in 
the  material  world.  The  solar  system  has  a  sun  and 
numerous  planets ;  they  are  all  distributed  in  a  cer- 
tain ratio  of  distance ;  they  move  round  the  sun 
with  a  certain  velocity,  always  exactly  proportionate 
to  their  distance  from  the  sun.  This  holds  good 
with  regard  to  the  nearest  and  the  farthest.  They 
move  in  paths  of  the  same  form ;  they  are  ruled  by 
the  same  laws  of  motion ;  they  receive  and  emit 
light  in  the  same  way.  These  laws,  which  are  the 
constant  modes  of  planetary  operation,  when  we 
come  to  study  them,  are  found  to  be  exceedingly 
intricate  ;  yet  they  are  uniform,  and  the  same  for  one 
planet  as  for  another ;  the  same  for  a  satellite  as  for 
a  planet.  They  are  perfectly  kept,  and  so  uniform 
in  action  that  if  you  go  back  to  the  time  of  Thales, 
five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  you  can  calculate 
the  eclipse  of  the  moon,  and  find  that  it  took  place 
exactly  as  the  historians  of  that  day  relate  ;  or  you 
may  go  forward  five  days,  or  five  years,  or  five  thou- 
sand years,  and  calculate  with  the  same  precision. 
So  accurate  are  these  laws,  that  an  astronomer 
studying  the  perturbations  of  a  remote  planet,  the 
phenomena  of  its  economy  not  accounted  for  by  the 
attraction  of  bodies  known  to  be  in  existence,  con- 
jectures the  existence  of  some  other  planet  which 
causes  the  phenomena  not  accounted  for.  Nay,  by 
mathematical  science  he  determines  its  place  and 
size,  inferring  the  fact  of  a  new  planet  outside  of  the 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  15 

uttermost  ring  of  the  solar  system;  at  a  certain 
rgiinute  he  turns  his  telescope  to  the  calculated  spot, 
and,  for  the  iirst  time,  the  star  of  Leverrier  springs 
before  the  eye  of  conscious  man ! 

Now  the  atheist  must  declare  that  all  this  order 
of  the  solar  system,  was  brought  about  by  the  for- 
tuitous concourse  of  matter,  and  indicates  no  mind, 
plan,  or  purpose  in  the  universe.  This  is  absurd. 
A  man  might  as  well  deny  the  fact  of  the  law  of 
the  solar  system,  or  the  existence  of  the  sun,  or  of 
himself,  as  to  deny  that  these  facts,  thus  coordinated, 
indicate  a  mind,  denote  a  plan,  and  serve  a  purpose 
calculated  beforehand. 

See  the  same  thing  on  a  smaller  scale.  The  com- 
position of  the  air  is  such  that  first  it  helps  light  and 
warm  the  earth ;  is  a  swaddling  garment  to  keep  in 
the  specific  heat  of  the  earth,  and  prevent  it  from 
radiating  off  into  the  cold,  void  spaces  of  the 
universe.  Next,  it  helps  cleanse  and  purify  the  earth 
by  its  free  circulation  as  wind.  Then,  it  promotes 
vegetation ;  carries  water  from  the  Tropics  to  the 
Norwegian  pine,  furnishes  much  of  the  food  of 
plants,  their  means  of  life.  Next,  it  helps  animal 
life,  is  the  vehicle  of  respiration:  all  plants  that 
grow,  all  things  that  breathe,  continually  suck  the 
breasts  of  heaven.  Again,  it  is  a  most  important 
instrument  for  the  service  of  man  ;  through  this  we 
communicate  by  artificial  light  and  artificial  sound. 


16  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

Without  it  all  were  dumb  and  motionless  ;  not  a 
bird  could  sing  or  fly,  not  a  cricket  creak  to  his 
partner  at  night,  not  a  man  utter  a  word ;  and  a  voice- 
less ocean  would  ebb  and  flow  upon  a  silent  shore. 
The  thought-mill  would  be  as  idle  as  the  windmill. 
Man  kindles  his  fire  by  the  air ;  it  moves  his  ship, 
winnows  his  corn,  fans  his  temples,  carries  his 
balloon. 

Now  the  air  is  capable  of  these,  and  a  great  many 
other  functions  in  virtue  of  its  peculiar  composi- 
tion,—  so  much  hydrogen,  so  much  oxygen.  No 
other  combination  of  elements  could  ever  have 
accomplished  this.  Vary  the  composition,  have  a 
little  more  hydrogen  or  oxygen,  and  you  alter  its 
powers  as  a  vehicle  of  radiation,  evaporation,  vegeta- 
tion, purification,  respiration,  communication,  and 
combustion.  The  atheist  must  believe  that  this 
composition  is  not  the  result  of  any  mind,  that  it 
serves  no  plan  and  purpose,  and  came  by  the  fortui- 
tous concourse  of  matter ;  no  more  ;  that  it  is  all 
chance. 

If  I  should  say  that  this  sermon  came  by  the 
fortuitous  concourse  of  matter,  that  last  Monday  I 
shut  up  pen,  ink,  and  paper  in  a  drawer,  and  to-day 
went  and  found  there  a  sermon,  which  had  come  by 
the  fortuitous  concourse  of  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  — 
every  man  would  think  I  was  very  absurd.  And 
yet  I  should  not  commit  so  great  a  quantity  of 
absurdity  as  if  I  were  to  say  "  the  composition  of 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  17 

air  came  by  the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms  ;  "  for 
it  takes  a  much  greater  mind  to  bring  together  and 
compose  the  air  which  fills  a  thimble  than  to  pro- 
duce all  the  sermons  and  literature  of  the  world. 

If  the  atheist  says  there  is  Mind  in  matter  which 
arranges  the  planets,  controls  their  distances,  their 
revolutions,  their  constant  modes  of  operation,  that 
this  mind  in  matter  arranges  the  elements  in  the  air 
so  as  to  perform  all  the  functions  which  I  have 
named,  and  many  more,  —  then  he  is  false  to  his 
atheism,  and  becomes  a  theist ;  for  he  no  longer 
denies  the  Qualities  of  God,  but  only  calls  them  by 
a  different  name. 

With  atheism  as  the  theory  of  the  universe,  the 
world  ought  to  be  a  jumble  of  parts,  with  no  con- 
texture ;  for  the  moment  you  admit  the  existence  of 
order  in  the  very  least  form,  a  constant  mode  of 
operation  on  the  very  smallest  scale, — why,  you 
must  admit  the  existence  of  the  Mind  which  devised 
the  order  and  the  mode  of  operation ;  and  if  you 
call  the  mind  Geist,  or  God,  or  Nature,  or  Jehovah, 
it  makes  small  odds :  the  question  is  not  about 
the  name,  but  about  the  fact. 

Now  the  world  is  nowhere  a  jumble.  Things 
are  not  "  huddled  and  lumped  together  "  in  the  com- 
position of  the  eyeball  of  the  emmet,  or  of  the  solar 
system.  Every  part  of  the  universe  is  an  argument 
against  atheism  as  a  theory  thereof. 
2* 


18  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

11.  Look  next  at  atheism  as  the  Theory  of  Indi- 
vidual Human  Life.  According  to  the  atheistic 
scheme  there  is  no  conscious  power  Avhich  is  the 
Cause  of  me  and  of  my  life,  which  is  the  Providence 
thereof ;  no  Mind  which  arranges  the  world  in  refer- 
ence to  me,  or  me  in  reference  to  the  world.  Does 
that  conclusion  satisfy  the  instinctive  desires  of 
human  nature,  any  better  than  it  accounts  for  the 
facts  of  material  nature  ? 

Look  at  human  life  from  this  point  of  view.     I 
see  but  little  ways  behind,  around,  or  before  me  ;  and 
yet,  in   all  directions,  my  power   of    knowledge  is 
greater  than  my  power  of  work.     I  know  little  of 
the  consequences  which  will  follow  from  my  action. 
I  invent  an  alphabet,  gunpowder,  the  printing-press, 
the  steam-engine,  a  representative  form  of  govern- 
ment,  a   constitution.     I   know  very  little    of  the 
effect  which  these  vast  forces  will  produce  in  the 
world  of  man.     I  know  that  the  steam-engine  will 
turn  my  mill,  that  the  printing-press  will  print  my 
newspaper,  that  gunpowder  will  explode  at  the  touch 
of  fire  ;  but  I  do  not  know  the  effect  which  these 
great  forces,  newly  introduced  to  the  world,  are  to 
have  on  the  families,  the  communities,  the  churches, 
the  states  of  mankind,  and  on  the  general  develop- 
ment of  the  human  race. 

The  atheist  says  there  is  nothing  which  knows 
any  better,  or  which  knows  any  more  about  it ; 
nothing  which  uses  these  inventions  as  forces  for  the 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  19 

advancement  of  any  purpose.  "  The  universe,"  says 
lie,  "  has  no  self-conscious  mind  except  the  mind  of 
man,  and  he  is  only  *  darkly  wise  and  meanly 
great.'  Nothing  in  the  world,  says  our  atheist,  knows 
what  a  day  may  bring  forth.  The  universe  is  drift- 
ing in  the  void  inane,  and  knows  nothing  of  its 
whence,  its  whither,  or  its  whereabouts.  Man  is 
drifting  in  the  universe,  and  knows  little  of  his 
whereabouts,  nothing  of  his  whence  or  whither. 
There  is  no  mind,  no  providence,  no  power,  which 
knows  any  better ;  nothing  which  guides  and  directs 
man  in  his  drifting,  or  the  universe  in  the  weltering 
waste  of  time.  Nothing  is  laid  up  for  to-morrow. 
My  life  tends  to  nothing." 

I  am  joyful :  joy  is  very  well,  but  nothing  comes 
of  it.  I  am  sorrowful,  and  suffer :  this  is  hard,  but 
it  is  no  part  of  a  plan  which  is  to  lead  to  something 
further.  And  when  my  manhood  falls  away,  and  my 
body  dissolves,  all  that  is  to  lead  to  nothing  better. 
My  baby-teeth  fall  out,  giving  way  to  my  man- 
teeth,  but  that  is  all  chance  and  indicates  no  fore- 
thought of  a  mind  which  provided  for  the  man  before 
the  baby  was  born  ! 

I  serve  men,  and  get  their  hate  and  scorn :  the 
Sadducee  grumbles  because  I  tell  him  of  his  soul 
and  immortality ;  the  Pharisee,  because  I  demand 
that  he  devour  widows'  houses  no  more,  nor  for  a 
pretence  make  long  prayers ;  and  both  of  these 
hunkers,   the    hunker    Sadducee    and    the    hunker 


20  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

Pharisee,  throw  stones  at  me,  and  put  me  to  death. 
It  all  comes  to  nothing  for  me  ;  I  am  a  dead  body, 
and  not  a  live  man  :  that  is  all  I  get  for  my  virtue. 

I  am  a  brave  man,  and  my  country  needs  me  to 
repel  the  Spanish  Armada,  or  to  keep  imperial 
Nicholas,  or  Francis,  or  papal  Pius  the  Ninth,  or  the 
little  President  Napoleon,  from  kidnapping  my  lib- 
erty. I  go  out  to  do  battle,  and  I  come  home 
scarred  all  over  with  heroism,  half  my  limbs  hewed 
off,  aching  at  every  pore  ;  or  I  die  on  the  spot.  I 
carry  no  heroism,  no  manhood  with  me ;  I  am  a 
heap  of  dust  which  other  dust  will  soon  cover,  but 
the  manhood  which  once  enchanted  this  dust  with 
valiant  life,  is  put  out  and  quenched  forever,  —  it  is 
all  gone,  it  is  nothing.  My  brother  in  that  time  of 
peril  was  a  coward ;  and  when  war  blew  the  trumpet 
and  his  country  called  on  him,  he  crept  under  the 
oven.  When  all  is  over,  and  quiet  is  restored,  he 
comes  out  with  a  whole  skin,  and  over  my  un- 
buried  bones  he  marches  into  peace  and  carousing, 
and  says,  "  A  pretty  fool  was  this  man  to  lay  down 
his  life  for  me  and  get  nothing  for  it  I "  And  the 
atheist  says  he  is  right. 

The  patriot  soldier  gets  his  wounds  and  crutch, 
the  martyr  his  fagot  and  flame,  Jesus  his  cup  of 
bitterness  and  cross  of  death,  —  and  that  is  all. 
Dives  has  his  purple  and  fine  linen,  faring  sump- 
tuously every  day,  more  heedless  than  the  dogs  of  the 
beggar  at  his  gate.     Lazarus  has  his  sores  and  the 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  21 

medical  attendance  of  the  hounds  in  the  street,  but 
death  ends  all. 

The  mother,  whose  self-denial  leads  her  to  forget 
every  thing  but  her  feeble,  crippled  child,  has  nothing 
but  her  affection  and  watching:  she  dies  and  all  is 
ended.  Another  mother  abandons  her  sickly,  pesti- 
lential child,  who  dies  of  neglect,  and  she  lives  forty 
years  longer  in  joyous  wantonness  and  riot;  and 
when  she  dies  it  is  to  the  same  end  as  the  other; 
only  she  for  her  falseness  has  had  forty  years  of 
animal  joy,  and  the  other  mother  for  her  faithfulness 
has  had  nothing  but  an  instantaneous  death.  And 
my  atheist  says  there  is  no  future  world  to  compen- 
sate the  mother  who  died  for  love. 

My  life  is  a  great  disappointment,  let  me  sup- 
pose;—  and  for  no  fault  of  mine,  but  for  my  ex- 
cellence, my  justice,  my  philanthropy,  for  the  service 
I  have  rendered  to  mankind.  I  am  poor,  and  hated, 
and  persecuted.  I  flee  to  my  atheist  for  consolation, 
and  I  ask,  "  What  does  all  this  come  to  ?  "  And 
he  says,  "  It  comes  to  nothing.  Your  nobleness 
will  do  you  no  good.  You  w411  die,  and  your  noble- 
ness will  do  mankind  no  service  ;  for  there  is  no  plan, 
or  order  in  all  these  things ;  every  thing  comes  and 
goes  by  the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms.  If  you 
had  been  a  hunker  you  might  have  had  money,  ease, 
honor,  respectability,  and  a  long  life,  with  the  appro- 
bation of  your  minister.  You  had  better  have  been 
so." 


22  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

I  lay  in  the  ground  one  dearest  to  me  ;  some  only- 
daughter —  her  life  but  a  bud,  not  a  blossom,  yet 
mere  bud  as  it  is,  the  better  part  of  my  life.  In  the 
agony  of  my  heart  I  flee  to  my  atheist  for  comfort ; 
and  he  cannot  give  me  a  drop  of  water  from  the  tip 
of  his  finger,  while  I  am  tormented  in  that  unutter- 
able grief.  "  A  worm,"  says  he,  "  has  eaten  up  your 
rose-bud.  Get  what  comfort  you  can.  This  is  the 
last  spring  day,  no  leaf  will  be  again  green  for  you." 

I  come  myself  to  die.  I  have  labored  to  extend 
my  existence,  which  every  man  loves  to  do ;  and  so 
I  reached  back  and  sought  to  find  out  who  my 
fathers  and  grandfathers  were,  and  trace  out  my 
pedigree.  I  wished  to  extend  myself  collaterally, 
and  reached  forth  toward  nature,  and  linked  myself 
with  that  by  science  and  art,  and  with  man  by  love. 
The  same  desire  to  extend  myself  urges  me  to  go 
forward  instinct  with  immortality,  and  join  myself 
again  to  my  dear  ones,  and  to  mankind,  for  eternal 
life.  But  my  atheist  stands  between  me  and  im- 
mortality." "  Death  is  the  end,"  says  he.  "  This  is 
a  world  without  a  God ;  you  are  a  body  without  a 
soul ;  there  is  a  here  without  a  Hereafter ;  an  earth 
without  a  Heaven.     Die,  and  return  to  your  dust !  " 

"  I  am  a  philosopher,"  says  he.  "  I  have  been  up 
to  the  sky,  and  there  is  no  Heaven.  Look  through 
my  telescope :  that  which  you  see  afar  off  there  is  a 
little  star  in  the  nebula  of  Orion's  belt ;  so  distant 
that  it  will  take  light  a  thousand  millions  of  years 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  23 

to  come  from  it  to  the  earth,  journeying  at  the  rate 
of  twelve  millions  of  miles  a  minute.  There  is  no 
Heaven  this  side  oF  that ;  you  see  all  the  way 
through ;  there  is  not  a  speck  of  Heaven.  And  do 
you  think  there  is  any  beyond  it  ? 

"  Talk  about  your  Soul  I  I  have  been  into  man 
with  my  scalpel  in  my  hand,  and  my  microscope, 
and  there  is  no  soul.  Man  is  bones,  blood,  bowels, 
and  brain.  Mind  is  matter.  Do  you  doubt  this  ? 
Here  is  a  Arnoldis'  perfect  map  of  the  brain  :  there  is 
no  soul  there  ;  nothing  but  nerves. 

"  Talk  of  Providence !  There  is  no  such  thing.  I 
have  been  through  the  universe,  and  there  is  no  God. 
God  is  a  whim  of  men ;  Nature  is  a  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms ;  man  is  a  fortuitous  concourse 
of  atoms ;  thought  is  a  fortuitous  function  of 
matter,  a  fortuitous  result  of  a  fortuitous  result,  a 
chance  shot  from  the  great  wind-gun  of  the  uni- 
verse,—  which  itself  is  also  a  chance-shot,  from  a 
chance-charge  of  a  chance-gun,  accidentally  loaded, 
pointed  at  random,  and  fired  off  by  chance.  Things 
happen ;  they  are  not  arranged.  There  is  luck, 
and  ill-luck  ;  but  there  is  no  providence.  Die  into 
dust !  True,  you  sigh  for  immortality ;  you  long  for 
the  dear  arms  of  father  and  mother,  that  went  to 
the  ground  before  you,  and  for  the  rose-bud  daugh- 
ter prematurely  nipped.  True,  you  complain  of  tears 
that  have  left  a  deep  and  bitter  furrow  in  your 
cheek;  you   complain   of    virtue  not   rewarded;  of 


24  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

nobleness  that  felt  for  the  Infinite ;  of  a  mighty  hun- 
gering and  thirst  for  everlasting  life  ;  a  longing  and  a 
yearning  after  God:  —  All  thaf  is  nothing.  Die,  and 
be  still !  "  Does  not  that  content  you  ?  Does  this 
theory  square  with  the  facts  of  consciousness  ? 


III.  Now  look  at  Atheism  as  a  Theory  of  the 
Life  of  Mankind.  Man  came  by  chance  ;  the  family 
by  chance ;  society  by  chance ;  nations  by  chance ; 
the  human  race  by  chance.  Man  is  his  own 
sole  guide  and  guardian.  No  Mind  ever  grouped 
the  faculties  together  and  made  a  cosmic  man,  — 
it  was  all  chance.  There  is  no  Mind  which  groups 
the  solitary  into  families,  these  into  nations,  and  the 
nations  to  a  world  —  it  is  all  chance.  There  is  no 
Providence  for  man,  except  in  human  heads.  Poli- 
ticians are  the  only  legislators  ;  their  statutes  the  only 
law.  There  is  no  Higher  Law.  Kings  and  presi- 
dents are  the  only  rulers  :  there  is  no  great  Father 
and  Mother  of  all  the  nations  of  mankind.  There 
is  no  mind  that  thinks  for  man,  no  conscience  to 
enact  eternal  laws,  no  heart  to  love  me  when  father 
and  mother  forsake  me  and  let  me  fall ;  no  will  of 
the  universe  to  marshal  the  nations  in  the  way  of 
wisdom,  justice,  and  love.  History  is  the  fortuitous 
concourse  of  events,  as  nature  of  atoms  ;  there  is  no 
plan,  nor  purpose  in  it  which  is  to  guide  our  going  out 
and  coming  in.     True,  there  is  a  mighty  going,  but 


SPECULATI\TE   ATHEISM.  25 

it  goes  nowhere.  True,  there  has  been  a  progres- 
sive development  of  man's  body  and  mind,  and  the 
functions  thereof;  a  growth  of  beauty,  wisdom, 
justice,  affection,  piety ;  but  it  is  an  accident,  and 
may  end  to-morrow,  and  the  next  day  there  may  be 
a  decay  of  mankind,  a  decay  of  beauty,  intellect, 
justice,  affection;  science,  art,  literature,  civilization 
may  be  all  forgot,  and  the  naked  savage  come  and 
bm-n  up  Boston,  New  York,  London,  and  Paris,  and 
drown  the  last  baby  of  civilization  in  the  blood  of 
the  last  mother.  You  are  not  sure  that  any  good 
will  come  of  it ;  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  any 
good  will  come  of  it.  Says  Atheism,  "  Every\vhere 
is  instability  and  insecurity." 

Look  on  the  aspect  of  human  misery,  the  out- 
rage, blood,  and  wrong  which  the  earth  groans  under. 
Here  is  the  wife  of  a  drunkard,  whose  marriage  life 
is  a  perpetual  violation.  She  married  for  love  a  man 
who  once  loved  her ;  but  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen 
of  the  city  insisted  that  he  should  be  made  a  beast. 
A  beast,  did  I  say  ?  Ye  four-footed  and  creeping 
things  of  the  earth,  I  beg  your  pardon  I  Even  the 
swine  is  sober  in  his  sty.  The  Mayor  and  Aldermen 
of  the  city  made  this  man  a  drunkard;  and  the  poor 
wife  watches  over  him,  cleanses  his  garments,  wipes 
off  the  foulness  of  his  debauch,  and  stitches  her  life 
into  the  garments  which  some  wealthy  tailor  will 
sell,  —  giving  her  for  wages  the  tenth  part  of  his 
own  profit,  —  and  which  some  dandy  will  wear, — 
3 


26  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

thanking  the  "  Gods  of  dandies"  that  he  is  not  like 
that  poor  woman,  so  ill-clad  and  industrious.  She 
will  stitch  her  life  into  the  garments,  working  at 
starvation  wages,  and  yet  will  pay  the  fines  to  keep 
the  street-drunkard  out  of  the  House  of  Correction, 
where  the  city  government  hides  the  bodies  of  the  men 
it  slays.  She  toils  till  at  length  the  silver  cord  of  life 
has  got  loosed,  and  the  golden  bowl  begins  to  break. 
She  goes  to  my  atheist,  and  asks,  "  What  comes  of 
all  this?  Am  I  to  have  any  compensation  for  my 
suffering?  "  And  the  Atheist  says,  "  Nothing  comes 
of  it;  there  is  no  compensation.  You  are  a  fooL 
You  had  better  have  got  a  license  from  the  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  to  prey  on  other  men's  wives  about 
you ;  and  then  you  might  have  had  wealth  and  ease 
and  respectability.  You  ought  to  drink  blood,  and 
not  shed  your  own." 

"  Abel's  blood  cries  out  of  the  ground;"  continues 
our  Atheist,  but  there  is  no  ear  of  justice  to  hear  it, 
and  Cain,  red  with  slaughter,  goes  off  welcomed  to 
the  arms  of  the  daughters  of  Nod ;  the  victims  of 
nobleness  rot  in  their  blood ;  booty  and  beauty  are 
both  for  him.  The  world  festers  with  the  wounds  of 
the  hero ;  but  there  is  no  cure  for  them,  the  hero  is  a 
fool  —  his  wounds  prove  it.  Saint  Catherine  has 
her  wheel.  Saint  Andrew  his  sword.  Saint  Sebastian 
his  arrows.  Saint  Lawrence  his  fire  of  green  wood  ; 
Paul  has  his  fastings,  his  watchings,  his  scourge,  and 
his  jail,  his  perils  of  waters,  of  robbers,  of  the  city 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  27 

and  the  wilderness,  his  perils  among  false  brethren, 
and  Jesus  his  thorny  crown,  his  malefactor's  death ; 
Kossuth  gets  his  hard  fate,  and  Francis  the  Stupid 
gets  the  Hungarian  throne  ;  the  patriots  of  France 
broil  in  the  tropic  marshes  of  Cayenne,  and  Napoleon, 
surrounded  by  cultivated  women  who  make  merchan- 
dise of  their  loveliness,  and  by  able  men  who  make 
merchandise  of  their  intellect.  Napoleon  the  Little 
fills  his  own  bosom  and  the  throne  of  France  with 
his  debauchery;  Europe  is  dotted  with  dungeons, — 
Austrian,  Hungarian,  German,  French,  Italian, — 
they  are  crowded  with  the  noblest  men  of  the  age, 
who  there  do  perpetual  penance  for  their  self-denial, 
their  wisdom,  their  justice,  their  affection  for  man- 
kind, and  their  fidelity  to  God.  These  die  as  the 
fool  dieth.  There  is  no  hope  for  any  one  of  them, 
in  a  body  without  a  soul,  in  an  earth  without  a 
heaven,  in  a  world  without  a  God.  Poes  not  that 
content  you  ?  " 

"All  the  Christian  w^orld  over,  Oppression  plies  its 
bloody  knout,  —  its  well  paid  metropolitan  Priest 
blessing  the  scourge  before  it  is  laid  on.  The  groan 
of  the  poor  comes  up  from  the  bogs  of  Ireland,  and 
from  the  rich  farms  of  England,  and  her  crowded 
manufactories.  Men  make  circumstances  in  Lon- 
don, which  degrade  two  hundred  thousand  people 
below  the  Cannibals  of  New  Zealand,  and  starve  the 
L-ish  into  exile,  brutality,  or  death.     The  sighing  of 


28  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

the  prisoner,  breaks  out  from  the  jail  of  the  tormen- 
tor, who 

'  Holds  the  body  bound, 

But  knows  not  -what  a  range  the  spirit  takes/ 

"  The  iron  gripe  of  kings  chokes  the  throat  of  the 
people.  Every  empire  is  girded  at  the  loins  with  an 
iron  belt  of  soldiers,  which  eats  into  the  nation's 
flesh.  Siberia  fattens  with  Freedom's  noble  dead, 
and  in  America  three  millions  of  men  drag  out  a  life 
in  chains,  bought  as  cattle,  sold  as  cattle,  counted  as 
cattle,  only  not  prayed  for  in  the  Christian  churches, 
as  cattle  are  ;  and  the  little  commissioners  who  kid- 
nap at  Boston,  and  the  great  stealers  of  men  who 
enact  the  statutes  which  make  women  into  things, 
are  honored  in  all  the  Christian  churches  of  the  land. 
Most  of  '  the  great  men,'  all  the  '  citizens  of  emi- 
nent gravity,'  all  the  'unimpeachable  divines,'  are 
on  the  side  of  wrong.  Cry  out,  blood  of  Abel ! 
there  is  no  ear  to  hear  you.  Victims  of  nobleness, 
rot  in  your  blood !  it  will  enrich  the  ground.  Ye 
saints,  —  Catherine,  Andrew,  Sebastian,  Lawrence, 
Paul,  Jesus,  —  bear  your  rack  and  gibbet  as  best 
your  bodies  may!  Kossuth,  stoop  to  Francis  the 
Stupid !  Ye  patriots  of  France,  kneel  to  Napoleon 
the  Little,  and  be  jolly  in  the  Sodom  which  he 
makes.  Ye  that  groan  in  the  dungeons  of  the 
world,  who  starve  in  its  fertile  soils,  who  wear 
chains  in  free  America,  —  yield  to  the  Jeffries,  the 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  29 

Haynaus,  the  slave-hunters,  and  the  priests!  for 
there  is  a  body  without  a  soul,  an  earth  without  a 
heaven,  a  world  without  a  God.  Atheism  is  the 
theory  of  the  Universe  ;  and  there  is  no  God,  no 
Cause,  no.  Mind,  no  Providence." 

The  Atheist  looks  on  the  lives  of  the  noble  men 

"  Who  in  the  public  breach  devoted  stood, 
And  for  their  country's  cause  were  prodigal  of  blood/' 

and  he  says,  "these  men  were  fools  ;  every  man  of 
them  might  have  been  as  sleek,  as  comfortable,  and 
as  fat  as  the  oiliest  priest  that  Mammon  consecrates. 
They  w^ere  fools,  and  only  fools,  and  fools  continu- 
ally. To  the  individual  hero  there  comes  nothing 
but  blood  and  wounds." 

He  looks  on  the  nations  that  failed  in  their  strug- 
gle against  a  tyrant's  chain  :  Poland  fell,  and  Kosci- 
usko went  to  London,  only  "  Peter  Pindar  "  to  wel- 
come the  exile ;  Greece  went  down  in  Turldsh 
night ;  Italy  and  Spain  must  bow  them  to  a  tyrant's 
whim,  —  and  the  Atheist  has  no  hope.  The  States 
which  fail  read  no  lesson  to  mankind,  and  have  no 
return  for  their  unblest  toil.  He  looks  on  the  nations 
now  in  their  agony  and  bloody  sweat,  sitting  in 
darkness  and  iron ;  he  sees  no  Angel  strengthening 
them.  What  a  picture  the  world  presents .:  Hero- 
ism unrequited,  paid  with  misery,  vice  on  a  throne, 
and  nobleness  in  chains.     Want,  misery,  violence, 


30  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

meet  him  everywhere  ;  and  for  his  comfort  he  has 
his  creed  —  a  body  without  a  soul,  an  earth  without 
a  heaven,  a  world  without  a  God  I 


The  Atheist  sends  out  his  Intellect  to  seek  for  the 
controlling  mind,  wdiich  is  the  Cause  of  the  created, 
the  Reason  of  the  conceivable,  the  ground  of  the 
true,  and  the  loveliness  of  things  beautiful.  His 
intellect  comes  back,  and  has  brought  nothing,  has 
found  nothing,  but  the  reflection  of  its  own  little- 
ness mirrored  on  the  surfaces  of  things.  He  saw 
matter  everywhere  ;  he  met  no  causal  and  provid- 
ing Mind. 

He  sends  out  his  Moral  Sense  to  seek  the  legislat- 
ing Conscience  which  is  Justice  in  what  is  right,  the 
Ground  of  good,  and  the  Altogether  Beautiful  to 
the  Moral  Sense,  the  Equitable  Will  which  rules  the 
Vv^orld.  But  his  Moral  Sense  returns  silent,  alone, 
and  empty ;  there  is  no  Equitable  Will,  no  Alto- 
gether Beautiful  of  moral  excellence,  no  Ground  of 
Good,  no  Conscience  which  enacts  Justice  into  the 
unchanging  law  of  right ;  there  is  only  the  finite  will 
of  man,  often  erring  and  always  feeble,  man  an  ani- 
mated and  self-conscious  drop  of  dew  in  the  Sahara 
of  the  world,  conscious  of  desire,  of  will,  but  of  such 
feebleness  that  soon  he  will  exhale  into  thin  air,  and 
be  no  more  a  drop  in  all  the  world,  —  will  evaporate 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  31 

into  nothing.  Everywhere  is  material  fate,  mate- 
rial chance :  spiritual  order,  spiritual  providence,  — 
that  is  a  dream. 

He  sends  out  his  Affections  on  the  same  quest, 
seeking  his  heart's  desire.  They  have  grown  strong 
by  love  of  Nature,  —  the  crystal,  the  plant,  and 
animal;  they  have  been  educated  by  loving  men  — 
parent  and  friend,  and  wife  and  child,  and  all  man- 
kind; refined  by  loving,  noble  men,  who  attract 
ingenuous  youth  as  loadstones  draw  the  iron  dust. 
Now  his  Affections  fly  forth  with  trembling  wing, 
and  seek  the  All-perfect  Ideal,  the  object  of  their 
love,  to  stay  the  hunger  of  the  heart  w^iich  craves 
the  Infinite  to  feed  upon  and  love.  But  the  affec- 
tions also  come  back  to  the  sad  man  with  no  return. 
"  There  is  nought  to  love,"  say  they  ;  "  nothing  save 
man  and  the  ideals  of  his  heart ;  they  are  beautiful, 
but  only  bubbles  ;  his  warm  breath  fills  them  for  a 
moment;  how  fair  they  shine,  —  they  cool,  they 
perish,  and  are  not  I  The  breath  was  but  a  part  of 
the  windy  cheat  which  blows  along  the  world,  —  the 
bubble  breaks,  and  is  nothing.  There  are  only  finite 
things  for  you  to  love  ;  only  finite  things  to  love  you 
in  return."  He  presses  the  frail  object  of  his  affec- 
tion closer  and  closer  to  his  heart.  "  This,  at  least," 
say  I,  "  is  secure,  and  is  a  fact — the  dear  one  is  a  real- 
ity, and  not  a  dream."  Still  there  is  a  sadness  in  my 
eye,  whence  speaks  the  unrest  and  wasting  of  the 
heart   which   longs    for    the    unchangeable    lovely. 


32  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

Death  comes  down  to  separate  me  from  the  best 
beloved.  Beauty  forsakes  the  elemental  clod,  the  lip 
is  cold  ;  the  heart  is  still ;  the  eye  —  its  lovely  light 
all  quenched  and  gone.  Where  is  the  mind  which 
once  spoke  to  me  in  hand  and  lip ;  the  affection 
which  loved  me,  finding  its  delight  in  loving,  serv- 
ing, and  in  being  loved  ?  It  is  nothing,  all  gone  —  like 
the  rainbow  of  yesterday,  no  trace  thereof  still  linger- 
ing on  the  sky.  "  But  what!  "  say  I,  "is  there  noth- 
ing for  me  to  love  which  will  not  pass  away  ?  " 
"  No :  love  gravitation,  if  you  like,  cohesion,  the  pri- 
mary qualities  of  matter;  nought  else  abides."  I 
look  up,  and  an  ugly  Force  is  there,  alien  to  my 
mind,  foreign  to  my  conscience,  and  hm-tful  to  my 
heart,  and  wantonly  strikes  dow^n  the  One  I  valued 
more  than  self,  and  sought  to  defend  with  my  own 
bosom,  —  then  I  die,  I  stiffen  into  rigid  death.  So 
the  heathen  fable  tells  that  Niobe  clung  to  her  chil- 
dren with  warding  arms,  while  the  envious  deities 
shot  child  after  child,  daughters  and  fair  sons,  till 
the  twelve  were  slain,  and  the  mother,  all  powerless 
to  defend  her  own,  herself  became  a  stone. 

Last  hope  of  all,  as  first  not  less  of  all,  the  atheist 
sends  out  his  Soul,  to  seek  its  rest  and  bring  back 
tidings  of  great  joy.  Throughout  the  vast  inane  it 
flies,  feeling  the  darkness  with  its  wings,  seeking  the 
Soul  of  all,  which  at  once  is  Reason,  Conscience, 
and  the  Heart  of  all  that  is,  which  will  give  satisfac- 
tion  to   the   various   needs  of   all.      But  the   soul 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  33 

likewise  comes  back  —  empty  and  alone,  to  say, 
"  There  is  no  God,  the  universe  is  a  disorder,  man  is 
a  confusion,  there  is  no  Infinite,  no  Reason,  no  Con- 
science, no  Heart,  no  Soul  of  things.  There  is 
nought  to  reverence,  to  esteem,  to  worship,  to  love, 
to  trust  in,  nothing  which  in  turn  loves  us,  with  all 
its  universal  force.  I  am  but  a  worm  on  the  hot 
sand  of  the  world,  seeking  to  fly  —  but  it  is  only 
the  instinct  of  wings  I  feel ;  striving  to  walk,  but 
handless  and  without  a  foot ;  essaying  then  to  crawl, 
so  it  be  only  up.  But  there  is  not  a  blade  of  grass 
to  hold  on  to  and  climb  up  by,  not  a  weed  to  shelter 
me  in  the  intolerable  heat  of  life. 

Thus  left  alone  I  look  at  the  gi'ound,  and  it  seems 
cruel  —  a  mother  that  devours  her  young.  No  voice 
cries  thence  to  comfort  me  ;  it  is  a  force,  but  nothing 
more.  Its  history  tells  of  tumult,  confusion,  and 
continual  change ;  it  prophecies  no  future  peace, 
tells  of  no  plan  in  the  confusion.  I  look  up  to  the 
sky,  there  looks  not  back  again  a  kind  Providence,  to 
smile  upon  me  with  a  thousand  starry  eyes,  and 
bless  me  with  the  sun's  ambrosial  light.  In  the 
storms  a  vengeful  violence,  with  its  lightning  sword, 
stabs  into  darkness,  seeking  for  murtherable  men. 

There  is  no  Providence,  only  capricious  senseless 
Fate.  Here  is  the  marble  of  human  nature,  the 
atheist  would  pile  it  up  into  palace  or  common 
dwelling ;  but  there  is  only  the  fleeting  sand  to  build 


34  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

on,  which  the  rains  wash  away,  or  the  winds  blow 
off,  nowhere  is  there  eternal  Rock  to  found  his 
building  on.  No,  he  has  not  daily  bread  —  nothing 
to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  his  mind,  his  conscience, 
and  his  heart,  the  famine  of  his  soul,  only  the  cold, 
thin  atmosphere  of  fancy.  Does  he  believe  in 
immortality — it  is  an  immortality  of  fear,  of  doubt, 
of  dread.  Experience  tells  him  of  the  history  of 
mankind,  a  sad  history  it  seems  —  a  record  of  war 
and  want,  of  oppression  and  servility.  He  sees 
that  pride  elbows  misery  into  the  kennel  and  is  hon- 
ored for  the  merciless  act,  that  tyrants  tread  the 
nations  under  foot,  while  some  patriot  pines  to  obli- 
vion and  death ;  he  sees  no  prophecy  of  better  things. 
How  can  he  in  an  earth  without  a  heaven,  in  a  soul 
without  a  body,  a  world  without  a  God  ? 

Atheism  sits  down  on  the  shore  of  Time;  the 
stream  of  Human  History  rolls  by,  bearing  success- 
ively, as  bubbles  on  its  bosom,  the  Egyptian  civili- 
zation, and  it  passes  slowly  by,  with  its  myriads  of 
millions,  and  the  bubble  breaks ;  the  Hebrew,  Chal- 
dean, Persian,  Grecian,  Roman,  Christian  civiliza- 
tion, and  they  pass  by  as  other  bubbles,  with  their 
many  myriads  of  millions,  multiplied  by  myriads  of 
millions.  Their  sorrows  are  all  ended;  they  were 
sorrows  for  nothing.  The  tears  which  furrowed  the 
cheek,  the  unrequited  heroism,  the  virtue  unre- 
warded,— they    have    perished,    and    there    is    no 


SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM.  35 

compensation ;  because  it  is  a  body  without  a  soul, 
an  earth  without  a  heaven,  a  world  without  a  God. 
"  Does  not  that  content  you  ?  "  asks  our  atheist. 

No  man  can  ever  be  content  with  that.  Few 
men  ever  come  to  it,  —  "  thanks  to  the  human  heart 
by  which  we  live  !  "  Human  nature  stops  a  great 
way  this  side  of  that. 

I  am  not  a  cowardly  man ;  but  if  I  were  con- 
vinced there  was  no  God,  my  courage  would  drop 
as  water,  and  be  no  more.  I  am  not  an  unhopeful 
man.  There  are  few  men  who  hope  so  much.  I 
never  despair  of  truth,  of  justice,  of  love,  and  piety. 
I  know  man  will  triumph  over  matter,  the  people 
over  tyrants,  right  over  wrong,  truth  over  falsehood, 
love  over  hate.  I  always  expect  defeat  to-day,  but 
I  am  sure  of  triumph  at  the  last ;  and  with  truth  on 
my  side,  justice  on  my  side,  love  on  my  side,  I 
should  not  fear  to  stand  in  a  minority  of  one, 
against  the  whole  population  of  this  whole  globe  of 
lands.  I  w^ould  bow  and  say  to  them,  —  "I  am  the 
stronger.  You  may  glory  now,  but  I  shall  conquer 
you  at  last."  Such  hope  have  I  for  man  here  and 
hereafter,  that  the  wickedest  of  sinners,  I  trust,  God 
will  bring  face  to  face  with  the  best  of  men,  his  sins 
wiped  clean  off,  and  together  they  shall  sit  down  at 
the  table  of  the  Lord,  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
But  take  away  my  consciousness  of  God,  and  I 
have  no  hope  ;  none  for  myself,  none  for  you,  none 
for  mankind.     If  no    Mind   in   the    universe   were 


36  SPECULATIVE   ATHEISM. 

greater  than  Humboldt's,  no  ruler  wiser  than  presi- 
dents, and  kings,  and  senates,  and  congresses,  if 
there  were  no  appeal  from  the  statutes  of  men  to 
the  laws  of  God,  from  present  misery  to  future 
eternal  triumph,  on  earth,  or  in  Heaven,  —  then  I 
should  have  no  hope.  But  I  know  that  the  universe 
is  insured  at  the  office  of  the  Infinite  God,  and  no 
particle  of  matter,  no  particle  of  mind  shall  ever 
suffer  ultimate  shipwreck  in  this  vast  voyage  of 
mortal  and  immortal  life. 

I  am  not  a  sad  man.  Spite  of  the  experience  of 
life  —  somewhat  bitter —  I  am  a  cheerful,  and  joy- 
ous, and  happy  man.  But  take  away  my  conscious- 
ness of  God ;  let  me  believe  there  is  no  Infinite 
God;  no  infinite  Mind  which  thought  the  world 
into  existence,  and  thinks  it  into  continuance;  no 
infinite  Conscience  which  everlastingly  enacts  the 
eternal  laws  of  the  universe  ;  no  infinite  Affection 
which  loves  the  world ;  loves  Abel  and  Cain,  — 
loves  the  drunkard's  wife  and  the  drunkard ;  the 
Mayors  and  Aldermen  who  made  the  drunkard ; 
which  loves  the  victim  of  the  tyrant,  and  loves  the 
tyrant;  loves  the  slave  and  his  master;  loves  the 
murdered  and  the  murderer,  the  fugitive  and  the 
kidnapper  —  publicly  griping  his  price  of  blood,  the 
third  part  of  Iscariot's  pay,  and  then  secretly  taking 
his  anonymous  revenge,  stealthily  calumniating 
some  friend  of  humanity  ;  that  there  is  no  God  who 
watches  over  the  nation  but  "  forsaken  Israel  wan- 


SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM.  37 

ders  lone ; "  that  the  sad  people  of  Europe,  Africa, 
America,  have  no  guardian,  —  then  I  should  be 
sadder  than  Egyptian  night!  My  life  would  be 
only  the  shadow  of  a  dimple  on  the  bottom  of  a 
little  brook  —  whirling  and  passing  away;  all  the 
joy  I  have  in  the  daily  business  of  the  world,  in  lit- 
erature and  science  and  art,  in  the  friendships  and 
wide  philanthropies  of  the  time,  would  perish  at 
once  —  borne  down  in  the  rush  of  waters  and  lost 
in  their  headlong  noise.  Yes,  I  should  die  in  uncon- 
trollable anguish  and  grief. 

A  realizing  sense  of  atheism,  a  realizing  sense  of 
the  consequences  of  atheism,  —  that  would  separate 
om-  nature,  and  we  should  give  up  the  ghost ;  and 
the  elements  of  the  body  would  go  back  to  the 
elements  of  the  earth.  But  —  God  be  thanked  !  — 
the  foundation  of  religion  is  too  deep  within  us. 
There  is  a  great  cry  through  all  creation  for  the 
Living  God.  Thanks  to  Him,  the  evidence  of  God 
has  been  ploughed  into  Nature  so  deeply,  and  so 
deeply  woven  into  the  texture  of  the  human  soul, 
that  very  few  men  call  themselves  atheists  in  this 
sense.  No  man  ever  willingly  came  to  this  conclu- 
sion :  no  man ;  no,  not  one  I  These  men,  who  have 
arrived  at  this  conclusion, — we  should  cast  no 
scorn  at  them  ;  we  should  give  them  our  sympathy ; 
a  friendly  heart,  and  the  most  affectionate  and 
tender  treatment  of  their  soul. 

Religion  is  natural  to  man.  Instinctively  we 
4 


38  SPECULATIVE  ATHEISM. 

turn  to  God,  reverence  Him,  and  rely  on  Him.  And 
when  Reason  becomes  powerful,  when  all  the 
spiritual  faculties  get  enlarged,  and  we  know  how 
to  see  the  true,  to  will  the  just,  to  love  the  beautiful, 
and  to  live  the  holy,  —  then  our  idea  of  God  rises 
higher  and  higher,  as  the  child's  voice  changes 
from  its  treble  pipe  to  the  dignity  of  manly  speech. 
Then  the  feeble,  provisional  ideas  of  God  which 
were  formed  at  first,  pass  by  us ;  the  true  idea  of 
God  gets  written  in  our  soul,  complete  beauty  drives 
out  partial  ugliness,  and  perfect  love  casts  out  all 
partial  fear. 


II 


OF  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM,  EEGARDED   AS   A 
PRINCIPLE   OF  ETHICS. 


INCREASE   OUR   FAITH.  —  Lukc   XVii.  5. 

Last  Sunday  I  said  something  of  Speculative 
Atheism,  that  is,  of  atheism  considered  as  a  theory 
of  the  universe ;  with  some  of  the  effects  on  the  feel- 
ings, and  the  views  of  Nature,  and  individual  and 
general  human  life,  which  come  thereof.  To-day  I 
ask  your  attention  to  a  sermon  of  Practical  Atheism  ; 
that  is  to  say,  of  Atheism,  considered  as  the  Princi- 
ple of  practical  Ethics. 

If  a  man  starts  with  the  idea  that  there  is  a  body 
and  no  soul,  an  earth  without  a  heaven,  and  a  world 
without  a  God,  that  idea  needs  must  become  a  prin- 
ciple of  practice ;  and  as  such  it  will  have  a  quite 
powerful  effect  on  the  man's  active  character ;  it 
will  come  at  length  to  be  the  controlling  principle  of 
his  life.  For  as  in  human  nature  the  religious  ele- 
ment is  the  foundation-element  of  man,  as  I  showed 
the  other  day,  so  any  misarrangement  in  that  quar- 


40  PRACTICAL    ATHEISM. 

ter  presently  appears  at  the  end  of  the  hands,  and 
affects  the  whole  life  of  man. 

Speculative  Atheism  will  not  be  fully  reduced  to 
practice  all  at  once,  but  in  the  long  run  it  will  assur- 
edly produce  certain  peculiar  results  ;  just  as  cer- 
tainly as  any  seed  you  plant  in  the  ground  will  bear 
fruit  after  its  own  kind,  and  not  after  another  kind. 
You  and  I  are  not  very  consistent,  it  may  be,  and 
we  therefore  allow  something  to  come  between  our 
first  principle  and  the  conclusion  which  would  follow 
from  it ;  but  the  Human  Race  is  exceeding  logical, 
and  carries  out  every  principle  into  practice,  mak- 
ing its  earnest  thoughts  into  very  serious  things : 
only  the  idea  is  not  carried  out  at  once,  but  in  long 
ages  of  time,  and  by  successive  generations  of  men. 
Every  theological  idea,  positive  or  negative,  that  is 
firmly  believed  in  by  mankind  or  by  nations,  will 
ultimately  be  carried  out  by  them  to  its  legitimate 
practical  effect,  and  will  appear  in  their  trade,  politics, 
laws,  manners  —  in  all  the  active  life  of  mankind. 
We  think  that  the  litany  which  we  repeat  in  the 
church  is  our  confession  of  faith.  Often,  that  reaches 
very  little  ways  in  ;  but  the  real  confession  of  the 
world's  faith  is  WTit  in  its  trade  and  politics,  in  its 
wars  and  hospitals,  in  its  armies  and  school-houses, 
better  than  in  its  "  pious  literature."  The  history 
of  America,  is  the  publication  of  our  real  theology, 
the  confession  of  our  actual  creed.  Each  inten- 
tional act  comes  from  a  sentiment  or  idea.    It  is  well 


PRACTICAL    ATHEISM.  41 


to   see  what   our  ideas  arc  before  the  thought  be- 
comes a  thing. 


Last  Sunday  I  showed  there  was  a  mere  formal 
speculative  atheism,  which  was  only  a  denial  of  God 
in  terms,  or  the  denial  of  the  actuality  of  a  certain 
special  idea  of  God,  but  an  affirmation  of  the  quality 
of  God  under  another  name  ;  while  real  speculative 
atheism  was  the  denial  of  the  quality  of  God  under 
all  names,  a  denial  of  the  actuality  of  any  possible 
idea  of  God.  And  I  showed  also  that  there  were 
reputed  atheists,  who  denied  some  specific  notion  of 
God,  because  they  had  a  better  one  ;  and  because 
they  were  really  more  theistic  and  more  religious 
than  the  men  about  them. 

The  same  distinction  is  to  be  made  in  respect  to 
practical  atheism.  Real  practical  atheism  is  the  liv- 
ing of  speculative  atheism  as  a  practice  ;  that  is,  the 
living  as  if  there  was  no  God ;  no  God  who  is  the 
Mind,  Cause,  and  Providence  of  the  world  ;  and  that 
is  living  as  if  a  man  had  no  natural  obligation  to 
think  and  speak  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and 
to  be  holy  or  faithful  to  himself;  living  as  if  there 
were  no  soul,  no  heaven,  no  God.  That  is  real, 
practical  atheism. 

There  is  a  formal  practical  atheism,  which  is 
merely  formal,  and  is  based  on  formal  speculative 
atheism.     As  the  mere  formal  speculative   atheist 


42  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

denies  the  name  of  God,  but  affirms  the  quality  of 
God,  and  ascribes  that  quality  to  Nature,  —  so  the 
mere  formal  practical  atheist  denies  that  man  owes 
any  natural  absolute  obligation  to  God,  to  think  true, 
to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy;  but  he 
affirms  that  he  owes  this  natural  and  absolute  obli- 
gation to  Nature ;  either  to  all  Nature,  represented 
by  the  universe,  or  to  partial  Nature,  represented  by 
mankind,  or  by  the  individual  man,  or  some  special 
faculty  in  man.  In  this  case  the  atheist  really 
affirms  the  absolute  obligation  of  man  to  the  quality 
of  God,  only  he  gives  that  quality  of  God  another 
name,  and  is  no  practical  atheist  at  all ;  though  he 
thinks  he  is  so,  and  calls  himself  by  that  hard  name. 
For  only  the  semblance  of  real  practical  atheism  can 
be  built  on  the  semblance  of  real  speculative  athe- 
ism. If  a  man  confesses  that  he  has  a  natural  and 
absolute  obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to 
feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy,  it  is  comparatively  of 
little  consequence  whether  he  says  that  he  owes 
that  obligation  to  Nature  or  to  God;  because  in 
sQch  a  case  he  means  the  same  by  the  word  "  Na- 
ture" that  another  man  means  by  the  word  "  God;" 
and  the  obligation  is  the  same,  the  consciousness  of 
it  is  the  same,  and  the  duty  which  comes  therefrom 
will  be  just  the  same'. 

I  dislike  to  hear  Nature  called  God,  or  God  called 
Nature.     Let  each  thing  have  its  own  name.     In 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  43 

due  time  I  will  show  what  evils  are  like  to  follow 
from  this  confusion  of  terms,  miscalling  the  finite 
and  the  Infinite.    Still  that  confusion  is  not  atheism. 

Real  practical  atheism,  I  say,  is  the  carrying  out 
of  real  speculative  atheism  into  life,  living  as  if  there 
were  no  natural  obligation  on  man  to  think  true,  to 
do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy ;  no  obligation, 
therefore,  to  be  faithful  to  himself  as  a  whole,  or  to 
any  part  of  himself  as  a  part. 

This  real  practical  atheism  is  divisible  for  the 
present  purpose  into  two  forms  :  First,  the  Undis- 
guised practical  Atheism.  Here  the  practical  atheist 
openly  and  undisguisedly  denies  the  quality  of  God, 
denies  that  he  owes  any  natural  obligation  to  think 
true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  or  to  be  self-faithful ; 
and  on  the  contrary  affirms  speculative  atheism  as 
his  practical  principle  and  motive  of  life,  and  then 
endeavors  to  live  up  to  it,  —  or  live  down  to  it. 
That  is  one  form. 

The  other  is  Disguised  practical  Atheism.  Here 
the  practical  atheist  acts  on  the  idea  that  he  has  no 
natural  obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel 
kind,  and  to  be  holy ;  and  thus  really  and  in  act 
denies  the  idea  of  God.  But  he  suppresses  the 
formal  denial  of  God  and  the  affirmation  of  atheism ; 
or  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  affirm  his  belief  in  God, 
and  deny  his  assumption  of  atheism  as  a  principle 
of  action. 

Now  in  truth  these  two  men,  the  undisguised  pro- 


44  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

fessor  of  atheism,  and  the  disguised  practiser  thereof, 
if  they  were  consistent,  would  act  pretty  much  alike 
in  most  cases,  and  do  the  same  thing ;  only  the 
undisguised  atheist  would  do  it  overtly,  with  no 
denial  of  the  fact  and  motive,  but  with  the  affirma- 
tion of  each ;  and  the  disguised  atheist  would  do  it 
covertly,  denying  both  the  fact  and  the  motive,  thus 
adding  hypocrisy  to  atheism.  The  undisguised 
atheist  will  be  the  more  manly,  because  he  is  more 
thorough-going  in  his  manhood  ;  and  such  a  person 
will  always  command  a  certain  degree  of  admira- 
tion, because  it  is  manly  in  the  man  to  say  right  out 
what  he  thinks  right  in ;  and  if  he  is  going  to  live 
after  a  certain  principle,  to  declare  that  principle 
beforehand.  There  is  a  consistency  of  manhood  in 
that,  and  the  very  assertion  is  therefore  often  a  guar- 
antee of  the  man's  honesty.  But  the  disguised 
atheist  will  be  the  more  atheistic,  because  he  is 
really  the  more  thorough-going  in  his  atheism.  One 
is  true  to  his  natural  character  as  man,  the  other 
to  his  conventional  character  as  atheist,  for  as 
atheism  is  the  negation  of  Nature,  so  the  negation 
of  itself  is  a  legitimate  function  of  atheism.  The 
reason  of  this  will  appear  presently. 

I  said  last  Sunday  that  there  never  was  any  com- 
plete, real,  speculative  atheism  in  the  world ;  for 
complete  real  speculative  atheism  is  so  abhorrent  to 
human  nature,  that  if  a  man  had  a  realizing  sense 
thereof  and  of  its  speculative  consequences,  he  must 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  45 

needs  die  outright.  I  may  say  the  same  of  complete 
real  practical  atheism.  There  is  no  complete  and 
real  practical  atheism ;  for  I  think  nobody  could 
ever  be  perfectly  consistent  with  real  speculative 
atheism,  and  live  as  if  he  felt  absolutely  no  obli- 
gation to  speak  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind, 
and  to  be  holy.  That,  therefore,  is  an  extreme 
which  man  cannot  possibly  reach.  Human  nature 
would  give  up  before  it  came  to  such  a  conclusion. 
It  is  conceivable  —  but  neither  actual  nor  possible. 
But  yet  there  is  a  great  deal  of  practical  conduct 
which  rests  on  this  basis,  and  on  no  other,  and 
though  no  man  was  ever  fully  false  to  his  nature, 
and  fully  true  to  his  atheism,  yet  very  many  are 
partially  false  to  their  nature,  and  partially  true  to 
atheism  ;  and  so  there  is  a  good  deal  of  practical 
atheism  in  the  world;  much  more  than  there 
appears  of  real  speculative  atheism ;  and  though  no 
man  is  a  complete  practical  atheist,  yet  there  are 
many  with  whom  practical  atheism  preponderates  in 
their  daily  life,  and  turns  the  balance.  .  I  mean  to 
say  they  live  more  atheistically  than  theistically. 
The  man  does  not  clearly  say  to  himself,  "  There  is 
no  God ; "  he  only  half-says  it,  and  little  more  than 
half-acts  on  that  supposition.  He  does  not  say  out, 
"  There  is  no  God,  and  hence  no  obligation  to  speak 
true,  act  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  faithful  to  myself ; " 
because,  first,  there  is  some  theism  left  in  the  man, 
—  I  think  nobody  can  ever  empty  himself  wholly  of 


46  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

the  consciousness  of  God ;  —  or  next  because  the  man 
is  not  fully  self-conscious  of  his  consciousness,  so 
to  say,  and  does  not  really  and  distinctly  bring  to 
light  the  principles  which  are  yet  the  governing  prin- 
ciples in  his  nature ;  —  Or,  finally,  if  he  is  thus 
conscious,  he  does  not  dare  to  say  it,  but  yet  acts 
mainly  on  that  supposition.  Now  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  this  in  the  world;  very  much  more  than 
appears  at  first  sight. 

I  mentioned  the  other  day  that  some  men  whom 
I  knew,  calling  themselves  atheists,  were  yet  excel- 
lent men  ;  true,  just,  loving,  and  holy  men  ;  full  of  a 
certain  religiousness,  eminently  faithful  to  them- 
selves, keeping  the  integrity  of  their  conscience  at 
great  cost  of  self-denial,  and  feeling  more  strongly 
than  the  majority  of  men  the  absolute  obligation 
they  were  under  to  be  .faithful  to  every  limb  of  their 
body  and  every  faculty  of  their  spirit.  These  were 
formal  atheists  and  not  real  atheists.  They  did  not 
think  there  was  no  God;  they  only  thought  that 
they  thought  so.  Some  of  these  men  have  really  a 
higher  idea  of  the  quality  of  God  than  the  Chris- 
tians about  them  ;  only  they  do  not  call  it  God,  but 
Nature ;  for  the  "  Nature  "  of  the  physical  philoso- 
pher, or  the  "  Mind "  of  the  metaphysical  philoso- 
pher is  sometimes  higher  in  some  particulars,  than 
the  notion  of  the  "  Trinity,"  or  the  notion  of  the 
'<  Unity,"  which  the  general  run  of  Christians  have 
formed.     I  am  bound  as  a  faithful  man  to  confess 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  47 

this.  So  some  of  these  who  are  called  atheists,  and 
who  call  themselves  so,  are  in  reality  more  theistic 
and  more  religious  than  the  general  run  of  Christians 
about  them.  Such  men  as  these  do  not  show  the 
practical  characteristics  of  real  atheism,  but  of  the 
real  theism  which  they  have  disguised  to  themselves 
by  the  name  of  atheism. 

Thus  one  of  these  in  America  says,  "  It  will  do 
very  well  for  Christian  Doctors  of  Divinity  and  dea- 
cons, who  believe  in  an  angry  God  that  will  damn 
mankind  forever,  to  declare  there  is  in  the  universe 
no  Law  higher  than  the  Baltimore  Platform,  and  the 
Compromise  Measures  of  the  American  Congress. 
It  will  do  very  well  for  them  to  declare  that  an 
angry  God  has  given  politicians  authority  to  make 
such  statutes,  and  declare  them  binding  on  men,  and 
so  '  suppress '  and  '  discountenance  all  agitation  '  for 
the  welfare  of  one-sixth  part  of  the  population  of 
the  country.  But  atheists,  who  believe  in  Nature, 
—  the  material  world,  —  in  Mind,  —  the  spiritual 
world,  —  they  must  declare  that  tbeite  is  a  Higher 
Law ;  to  wit :  the  law  of  Nature,  seen  everywhere 
in  the  ground,  and  in  the  sun  ;  and  the  law  of  Mind 
also,  felt  everywhere  in  the  consciousness  of  man." 

It  is  very  plain  that  this  man,  though  he  calls 
himself  an  atheist,  has  really  an  idea  of  God  and 
consequently  of  man's  obligation  to  speak  true,  act 
right,  feel  kind,  and  be  holy,  much  higher  than  the 
Christian  divine  who  would  send  his  mother  into 


48  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

bondage  to  keep  the  Compromise  Measures ;  a 
much  higher  idea  than  the  man  who  would  renounce 
his  reason  for  the  sake  of  his  creed,  and  who  would 
give  up  his  humanity  in  order  to  join  a  church,  or  to 
keep  the  wicked  statutes  which  men  make  in  their 
parliaments.  Here  you  perceive  the  man  calling 
himself  by  that  ugly  name,  was  only  a  formal 
atheist,  and  had  really  an  idea  of  God  which  vastly 
transcended  the  idea  of  the  churches  about  him.  I 
am  bound  in  justice  to  say  this. 

The  actual  consequence  of  atheism  as  a  principle 
of  action  is  something  very  different  from  that.  The 
practical  atheist,  starting  from  his  speculative  prin- 
ciple that  there  is  nothing  which  is  the  Mind,  the 
Cause,  and  the  Providence  of  the  universe,  or  of 
any  part  thereof;  and  accordingly  that  Nature  and 
Man  are,  respectively,  the  only  mind,  cause,  and 
providence  of  themselves,  —  he  must  necessarily 
believe  that  man  is  under  no  natural  and  absolute 
obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and 
to  be  holy.  He  must  deny  that  there  is  any  such 
obligation  to  God,  because  he  denies  the  existence 
of  God,  or  because  he  denies  the  existence  of  the 
quality  of  God ;  and  he  must  deny  that  he  owes 
this  obligation  to  himself,  for  as  man  is  his  own 
mind,  cause,  providence,  lawgiver,  and  director,  so 
every  propensity  of  the  man  is  likewise  and  equally 
its  own  cause,  its  own  mind,  its  own  providence,  its 
own  lawgiver  and  director.     Accordingly  passion  is 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  49 

no  more  amenable  to  reason  and  conscience,  than 
reason  and  conscience  are  amenable  to  passion. 
The  parts  are  no  more  amenable  to  the  whole,  than 
the  whole  to  any  one  of  the  parts.  Man  is  finite,  and 
there  is  no  Higher  Being  above  man ;  and  so  there 
is  no  Higher  Law  above  the  caprice  of  any  passion 
or  any  calculation.  The  man  may  will  any  thing 
that  he  will,  and  it  shall  be  his  law.  For  reason 
there  stands  the  arbitrary  caprice  of  man,  the  arbi- 
trary caprice  of  each  instinctive  desire,  or  of  any 
calculated  act  of  will,  and  no  more. 

If  the  atheist  admits  there  is  in  human  conscious- 
ness an  Idea  of  Right,  he  must  declare  it  is  not  any 
more  binding  upon  man  than  the  Idea  of  Wrong. 
We  form  an  Idea  of  Absolute  Right :  "  it  is  a  mere 
whim,"  says  the  atheist ;  there  exists  no  substance 
in  which  the  Absolute  Right  can  inhere.  It  is  an 
abstract  quality  which  belongs  to  no  substance,  ii 
is  a  nothing ;  only  it  differs  from  an  absolute  tran- 
scendental nothing  in  this,  that  it  is  a  thinkable 
nothing;  not  real,  —  an  actual  thing;  not  possible, 
—  a  thing  to  be  actual;  yet  conceivable,  an  actual 
thought  in  the  mind.  You  may  distribute  nothing' 
into  various  heads,  and  say  there  is  a  pure  nothing, 
which  cannot  be  conceived  of  at  all.  You  can  have 
no  notion  of  a  pure  nothing  —  it  is  not  even  think- 
able ;  that  is  absolute  transcendental  negation  —  a 
denial  of  subjective  conceivableness,  as  well  as  of 
objective   actuality.     Then  you  may  say,  there  is 

5 


50  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

also  another  form  of  nothing,  which  is  the  thinkable 
nothing.  According  to  an  atheist,  God  is  a  thinka- 
ble nothing,  and  the  Idea  which  men  have  of  God, 
has  no  more  objective  actualness  to  support  it,  than 
the  Idea  of  Light  would  have  if  all  material  light, 
all  actual,  and  all  possible  light,  were  blotted  out  of 
being.  Then  all  the  necessary  attributes  of  God  fall 
into  the  same  class — thinkable  nothings.  So  do 
all  the  transcendent  attributes  of  man.  Truth  is  a 
thinkable  nothing.  Justice  a  thinkable  nothing,  and 
any  excellence  which  surpasses  the  excellence  of 
Thomas,  and  Eichard,  and  Henry,  or  all  actual  men, 
is  also  nothing ;  only  it  is  a  thinkable  nothing,  not  a 
transcendental  nothing. 

This  being  the  case,  there  is  nothing  for  me  to  as- 
pire after.  Ideal  wisdom,  justice,  love,  holiness,  each 
is  but  a  thinkable  nothing ;  —  I  do  not  aspire  after 
that,  more  than  I  should  marshal  ghosts  into  an  army 
to  go  out  and  fight  a  battle ;  or  put  in  battery  a 
thinkable  cannon,  which  is  no  cannon,  and  good  for 
nothing.  And  then,  all  reverence  must,  of  course, 
be  weeded  out  from  the  mind  of  the  practical  atheist. 
He  can  only  reverence  something  that  he  sees  with 
his  eye  or  feels  with  his  hand,  or  reverence  himself. 
This  faculty  of  reverence  which  is  born  in  us,  —  so 
delightful  as  a  sentiment,  as  a  principle  so  strong, — 
must  take  one  of  two  forms,  —  that  of  servility,  — 
crouching  down  before  a  man ;  or  of  self-esteem, 
strutting  proudly  in  its  own  conceit.  There  is  no 
other  form  possible  for  it. 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  51 

The  practical  atheist  denies  God,  and  of  course 
denies  religion  in  all  its  parts  ;  absolutely  denies  all 
obligation  ;  to  him  the  idea  of  obligation  and  of 
duty  must  lack  actuality.  He  must  deny  my  obli- 
gation to  conform  to  my  reason,  conscience,  affec- 
tions. There  is  no  reason  therefore  why  I  should 
speak  and  think  true,  do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be 
holy,  if  it  is  agreeable  to  me  to  do  otherwise. 
Therefore  if  I  am  an  atheist,  and  if  atheism  be 
unpopular,  my  atheism  will  justify  me  in  denying 
atheism  itself  and  in  affirming  theism.  So  atheism, 
in  this  way  is  self-destructive ;  its  development  is  its 
dissolution.  So  to  deny  atheism,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, will  be  more  atheistic  than  to  affirm  it. 
The  atheist  who  denies  it  is  false  to  his  manhood ; 
there  is  no  atheistic  reason  why  he  should  be  true 
to  it;  and  the  more  he  denies  it,  the  more  he  is 
faithful  to  his  atheistic  opinion.  So  the  expedient 
must  take  the  place  of  the  true  and  the  right ;  the 
agreeable  must  take  the  place  of  the  beautiful; 
desire,  the  place  of  duty ;  and  /  will  must  take  the 
place  of  that  solemn  word,  /  ought.  There  can  be 
no  ought  in  the  grammar  of  atheism. 

But  as  the  atheist  in  denying  God  denies  the  soul, 
and  in  doing  that  denies  the  immortality  of  man, 
his  range  of  expediency  must  be  limited  to  this  life ; 
and  not  only  must  it  be  limited  to  the  earthly  life  of 
the  human  race,  —  which  may  be  eternal  for  aught 
we  know,  —  but  it  must  be  limited  to  the  life  of  the 


52  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

particular  atheist  who  thinks  it,  and  even  to  the 
humbler  faculties  and  lower  wants  of  his  nature  ; 
and  so  the  highest  thing  he  can  desire  must  be  his 
own  present  comfort.  That  is  the  highest  real  thing 
that  he  knows.  So  speculative  atheism  reduced  to 
practice,  must  lead  to  complete  material  selfishness, 
and  can  lead  to  nothing  else. 

But  as  human  nature  will  not  allow  complete  spec- 
ulative atheism  as  a  theory  of  the  universe,  so  it  will 
not  any  more  allow  complete  practical  atheism,  or 
complete  selfishness,  as  a  principle  of  life.  There  is  a 
margin  of  oscillation  around  every  man,  and  we  are 
allowed  to  vibrate  a  little  from  side  to  side.  This  mar- 
gin seems  sometimes  pretty  wide,  but  complete  prac- 
tical atheism  or  complete  speculative  atheism  lies  a 
great  ways  outside  of  the  farthest  limit  of  human 
oscillation.  It  is  a  thinkable  nothing  —  conceivable, 
but  not  actual,  or  even  possible.  Still  practical  athe- 
ism actually  tends  to  that  conclusion. 


All  this  which  I  have  said  is  general  in  its  appli- 
cation ;  is  universal  —  it  will  apply  to  all  forms  of 
life.  Now  see  how  this  atheism  will  manifest  itself 
in  the  practical  conduct  of  men,  in  the  various  forms 
of  Individual,  Domestic,  Social,  National,  and 
General  Human  Life.  Let  me  say  a  word  of  each 
of  these  in  its  order. 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  53 

I.     I  will  speak  first  of  the  Individual  Life. 

As  by  the  atheistic  theory  of  the  universe  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  moral  obligation,  no  such  thing  as 
Duty,  no  Absolute  Right,  —  as  man  is  the  highest 
Mind  in  the  universe,  his  own  Cause,  his  own  Prov- 
idence, his  own  Originator,  his  own  Sustainer,  and 
his  own  Director,  —  so  he  is  perfectly  free  to  do 
exactly  as  he  pleases.  Duty  will  resolve  itself  into 
caprice  of  selfishness.  The  man  is  to  concentrate 
himself  particularly  upon  the  desire  that  is  upper- 
most at  the  time ;  for  as  I  am  my  own  end,  and  to 
seek  my  own  welfare  at  all  hazards,  so  each  particu- 
lar propensity  in  me  is  its  own  end,  and  to  seek  its 
own  welfare,  —  that  is,  its  own  gratification,  —  at 
any  or  all  hazards. 

So  in  my  Period  of  Passion,  the  gratification  of 
the  passional  propensities  will  be  the  chief  thing 
which  I  am  to  seek.  I  recognize  no  Higher  Law,  in 
me  or  out  of  me ;  no  law  to  prescribe  a  rule  of  con- 
duct for  me  as  a  whole,  or  to  prescribe  a  rule  of 
conduct  for  any  particular  part  of  me,  —  any  special 
passion.  To  acknowledge  an  imperative  and  extra- 
human  law  from  without,  which  has  a  natural  right 
to  claim  allegiance  from  me  and  to  rule  me  as  a 
whole — that  would  be  to  confess  a  God;  not  in 
terms,  but  in  fact.  To  acknowledge  an  imperative 
and  extra-passional  law  within  me,  to  which  I  owe 
allegiance  and  which  has  a  natural  right  to  rule  over 
any  one  passion,  is  to  acknowledge  God  in  degree ; 

5* 


54  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

for  what  has  a  natural  right  to  rule  absolutely  over 
any  one  particular  propensity  is  God,  so  far  as  that 
propensity  is  concerned ;  and  as  I  deny  the  actuality 
of  the  Infinite,  and  do  not  acknowledge  a  God  who 
is  the  Reason  and  Conscience  of  the  Universe  and  has 
the  right  to  rule  over  me  as  a  whole,  no  more  do 
I  acknowledge  that  my  own  personal  reason  and 
conscience  have  the  right  to  rule  over  me  or  over  any 
special  appetite  or  desire.  There  is  no  extra-personal 
and  Infinite  Norm  to  prescribe  a  rule  of  conduct  for 
me  ;  there  is  no  intra-personal  and  finite  norm  to 
prescribe  a  rule  of  conduct  for  any  appetite  or  pas- 
sion. So  I  am  to  let  my  passion  have  its  swing  in 
its  quest  for  pleasure.  If  I  have  got  rid  of  the  great 
God  of  the  universe,  and  acknowledge  no  absolute 
obligation  to  think  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and 
to  be  holy,  — it  will  be  ridiculous  in  me  to  set  up  a 
little  God  in  my  own  consciousness,  and  acknowl- 
edge the  obligation  of  my  members  to  conform 
thereto  in  any  one  particular. 

So  the  negation  of  religion  as  a  whole  carries 
with  it  the  negation  of  control  over  any  one  particu- 
lar passion.  As  the  universe  is  a  "  fortuitous  con- 
course of  atoms,"  without  any  thing  to  rule  it,  with 
no  mind  to  direct  it,  self-originated,  self-directed, 
self-sustained,  —  so  my  consciousness  must  be  a 
fortuitous  concourse  of  passions  with  no  harmony 
therein ;  every  passion  self-originated,  self-directed, 
self-sustained,  its  own  end ;  and  to  seek  its  own  grati- 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  55 

fication  wholly  regardless  of  its  neighbor,  or  the 
whole. 

Accordingly  in  the  Period  of  Passion  I  may  give 
loose  to  my  instinctive  appetites.  You  come  to  me 
and  say,  "  There  is  a  God.  You  must  not  break 
his  law."  I  deny  this.  "  At  least  there  is  some- 
thing that  is  right,  and  you  must  do  that."  I  deny 
that  also  ;  I  say  there  is  no  such  thing  as  right.  "At 
any  rate  you  must  control  your  passions  for  the 
good  of  your  whole  system,  during  a  long  life." 
But,  why  should  I  do  that  ?  What  right  have  I  to 
control  this  or  that  passion,  and  debar  it  of  its  tem- 
porary gratification,  for  the  sake  of  giving  the  whole 
man  a  lasting  gratification?  The  passion  has  no 
norm  but  itself;  what  right  has  the  whole  man  to 
control  any  part  of  him,  or  one  part  to  hold  another 
in  check  ?  or  put  off  pleasure  to-day  for  more 
pleasure  to-morrow  ?  So  at  this  period  of  life 
anarchy  of  passions  is  the  only  atheistic  self-gov- 
ernment. 

In  the  Period  of  Ambition  —  w^hich  in  New  Eng- 
land is  commonly  by  far  the  more  dangerous  of  the 
two,  as  its  perils  lead  to  fortune,  and  the  ruin  it 
brings  is  deemed  eminent  success  —  I  am  to  let  the 
other  selfish  propensities  seek  each  its  own  object, 
and  not  hinder  them.  I  am  covetous  :  I  am  not  to 
restrain  my  avarice  by  my  reason,  my  conscience, 
my  affections ;  I  am  to  seek  my  own  gain  in  all 
ways,  at  all  hazards,  and  in  derision  of  reason,  of 


56  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

conscience,  and  of  affection.  There  is  no  principle 
to  stand  between  me  and  the  dollar,  or  the  office 
which  I  covet.  I  am  to  be  wholly  unscrupulous  in 
my  zeal,  and  in  the  means  I  make  use  of  to  achieve 
my  end.  I  have  a  great  love  of  power,  fame,  ease ; 
and  I  am  to  let  each  of  these  desires  have  its  full 
swing.  There  is  no  higher  power  to  prescribe  a  rule 
of  conduct  for  my  ambition,  more  than  for  my  pas- 
sion. Here  all  must  be  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
ambitions,  the  anarchy  of  ambitions  is  the  only 
atheistic  self-government  at  this  period. 

So  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  my  life  from  being 
the  mere  selfishness  of  passion  in  youth,  seeking 
pleasure  as  its  object;  or  the  selfishness  of  ambition 
in  manhood,  seeking  profit  as  its  goal ;  for  nothing 
has  any  right  to  stand  between  me  and  the  object  of 
my  ambition,  more  than  between  me  and  the  ob- 
ject of  my  passion.  Atheism  must  be  universal 
anarchy  I 

Now  each  of  these  forms  of  atheism  may  assume 
two  modes.  One  is  that  of  gross  selfishness,  that 
is,  gross  sensualism  of  pleasure  in  the  period  of 
passion,  or  gross  calculation  of  profit  in  the  period 
of  ambition.  It  will  terminate  in  the  gross  volup- 
tuary or  the  gross  hunker.  That  is  one  form.  It  is 
the  rude,  coarse,  gross  form.  It  is  the  form  in  which 
atheism  would  manifest  itself  with  the  poor,  with 
the  uneducated,  with  the  roughest  of  men.     It  is  the 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  57 

atheism  of  savagery  —  the  practical  atheism  of  St 
Giles*  parish  in  London. 

The  other  mode  is  that  of  refined  selfishness,  that 
is,  refined  sensualism  of  pleasure  in  the  period  of 
passion,  or  the  refined  calculation  of  profit,  in  the 
period  of  ambition  ;  and  so  here  it  will  terminate  in 
the  delicate  and  subtle  voluptuary,  or  else  in  the  del- 
icate and  subtle  hunker; — This  is  the  atheism  of 
civilization,  the  atheism  of  St.  James'  parish  in 
London.  The  mode  will  depend  on  the  temperament 
and  circumstances  of  the  man.  And  yet  you  see 
these  two  are  generically  the  same,  with  unity  of 
idea  and  unity  of  purpose,  both  seek  a  selfish  object, 
and  both  come  to  the  same  end,  only  one  in  the 
delicate  and  the  other  in  the  gross  form.  In  either 
case  the  aim  of  life  is  to  be  the  rehabilitation  of 
selfishness ;  I  mean  the  enthroning  of  selfishness  as 
the  leading  practical  principle  of  life.  The  atheist 
is  to  look  on  every  faculty  as  an  instrument  of  plea- 
sure or  profit;  to  look  on  his  life  as  a  means  of 
selfishness  and  no  more ;  to  look  on  himself  as  a 
beast  of  pleasure  or  a  beast  of  prey.  Behold  the 
man  of  atheism  !  —  his  controlling  principle  selfish- 
ness ;  his  life  "  poor,  and  dirty,  and  short !  " 

Now  man  is  not  selfish  by  nature.  We  have  self- 
love  enough  to  hold  us  together.  Self-love,  the 
conservative  principle  of  man,  is  the  natural  girdle 
put  about  our  consciousness  to  keep  us  from  falling 
loose,  and   spreading,   and    breaking  asunder.      In 


58  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

human  nature  self-love  is  not  too  strong.  When  all 
the  faculties  act  in  harmony  there  is  no  excess  of 
this.  But  if  you  deny  that  faculty  which  looks  to 
the  Infinite,  which  hungers  for  the  ideal  true,  the 
ideal  just  and  lovely  and  holy,  then  self-love,  con- 
servative of  the  individual,  degenerates  into  sel- 
fishness, invades  others,  and  man  becomes  merely 
selfish. 

This  fact  implies  no  defect  in  the  original  consti- 
tution of  man ;  for  it  is  a  part  of  the  plan  of  human 
nature  that  religion,  the  consciousness  of  God, 
should  be  the  foundation-element  of  consciousness, 
and  so  the  condition  of  manifestation  for  all  the 
high  faculties  put  together:  and  as  roses  will  not 
bloom  without  light  and  warmth,  or  as  ships  cannot 
keep  the  sea  without  keel  and  rudder  and  a  hand 
upon  the  helm,  no  more  can  the  high  qualities  of 
man  come  forth  without  putting  in  its  proper  place 
the  foundation-element  of  man,  and  letting  the  reli- 
gious principle  lay  its  hand  upon  the  helm.  The 
individual  atheist,  if  consistent,  must  practically  live 
in  utter  selfishness;  material  selfishness,  selfishness 
bounded  by  the  short  span  of  his  own  earthly  exist- 
ence.    And  that  is  individual  ruin. 

II.  See  next  the  effect  of  practical  atheism  on 
Domestic  Life,  in  the  Family.  The  normal  basis 
and  bond  of  union  in  the  family  is  INIutuality  of 
Love   in    its   various  forms :    connubial  —  between 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  59 

man  and  wife,  —  parental,  affiliativc  or  kindly 
between  kith  and  kin,  —  and  friendly  love. 

Connubial  love  in  its  normal  state  consists  of  two 
factors,  —  passion,  seeking  the  welfare  of  the  lover, 
and  affection,  which  seeks  the  welfare  of  the 
beloved.  In  normal  connubial  love  these  two  are 
coordinated  together.  Each  aims  to  delight  the 
other  more  than  to  enjoy  himself;  and  finds  his 
satisfaction  less  in  enjoying,  than  in  delighting. 
Passion  is  then  beautiful  and  affection  is  delightful. 
Self-love  is  subordinate  to  the  love  of  another,  the 
special  to  the  universal.  The  love  of  the  true,  the 
just,  the  ever-beautiful,  and  the  holy,  comes  in,  and 
prevents  even  the  existence  of  selfishness.  This 
condition  affords  an  opportunity  for  developing  and 
enjoying  some  of  the  highest  qualities  of  man. 
Passion  is  instinctive,  and  affection  also  is  instinctive 
at  first ;  but  as  man  develops  himself  by  culture,  as 
the  human  race  enlarges  in  its  progressive  unfolding, 
so  the  affections  become  larger  and  larger,  more 
powerful  in  the  individual  and  the  race,  and  the  joy 
of  delighting  becomes  greater  and  more. 

But  in  practical  atheism  the  family  must  rest  on 
Mutuality  of  Selfishness,  not  on  mutuality  of  love. 
And  this  must  appear  in  all  its  forms,  in  the  relation 
between  acquaintances  or  friends,  between  kith  and 
kin,  between  parent  and  child,  between  man  and 
wife.  Marriage  must  be  only  for  the  selfishness  of 
transient  pleasure,  or  the  selfishness  of  permanent 


60  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

profit.  The  parental  and  filial  relation  must  be  only 
a  relation  of  selfishness,  the  parents  wanting  the 
child  to  serve  them  as  a  beast  of  burden  or  as  a 
toy,  and  the  children  wanting  the  parent  to  serve 
them,  and  valuing  father  or  mother  only  for  what 
they  get  therefrom.  The  relations  of  kinship,  of 
brother  and  sister,  of  uncle  and  nephew,  of  aunt  and 
niece  ;  the  relation  of  friendship  must  also  be  of 
selfishness,  and  no  more.  Passion  must  be  all  lust, 
and  affection  die  out  and  give  place  to  selfish  calcu- 
lation. The  wife  must  be  the  husband's  tool  or  his 
toy,  and  the  husband  the  toy  or  the  tool  of  the 
wife. 

Marriage  is  then  possible  for  the  sake  only  of  three 
things :  first,  for  animal  gratification  ;  next  for  pecu- 
niary profit;  last  for  social  respectability.  It  is  a 
union  of  passions  in  the  one  case,  of  estates  in  the 
next,  of  respectabilities  in  the  last ;  at  any  rate  is 
the  conjunction  of  bodies  without  a  soul,  of  selfish- 
ness without  self-denial,  for  a  here  with  no  hereafter, 
and  in  a  world  with  no  God.  Behold  the  family  of 
practical  atheists!  Atheism  gone  to  housekeeping! 
the  housekeeping  of  atheism  like  the  individual  life 
thereof,  —  must  be  what  Hobbes  said  of  it,  —  "  poor, 
and  dirty,  and  short!"  Expect  no  self-command 
here  for  conscience'  or  affection's  sake ;  no  self-denial 
to-day,  for  dear  and  lasting  delight  to-morrow;  no 
self-sacrifice  for  another's  joy  or  another's  gi'owth. 
Mutuality  of  selfishness  is   all ;    and    the  stronger 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  01 

selfishness  must  carry  the  day ;  and  that  is  the  ruin 
of  the  family.  No  family  life  of  joy  is  possible 
without  self-denial  on  all  sides.  The  wife  must  deny 
herself  for  the  husband;  the  husband,  himself  for 
the  wife ;  the  parent  for  the  child ;  kith  for  kin,  and 
friend  for  friend.  The  stronger  and  nearer  I  fold 
another  to  my  bosom,  the  nearer  and  stronger  is  the 
demand  on  me  for  self-denial,  yea  for  self-sacrifice 
for  the  sake  of  the  object  that  my  arms  enfold. 

Now  there  is  much  partial  practical  atheism  which 
appears  in  this  domestic  form.  The  present  position 
of  woman  is  only  justified  on  the  ground  that  there 
is  no  God  :  men  do  not  understand  it  as  yet ;  one 
day  they  surely  will.  Every  marriage  which  is  not 
based  on  mutuality  of  affection  —  where  good  is  to 
be  taken  and  good  is  to  be  given,  and  man  and  wife 
both  are  to  take  and  both  are  to  give  —  is  bottomed 
at  last  on  practical  atheism ;  only  on  that.  The 
other  day  I  said  it  was  impossible  for  a  man  to  be  a 
complete  speculative  atheist.  It  is  impossible  for 
him  to  be  a  complete  practical  atheist.  But  grant 
that  there  was  a  complete  practical  atheistic  man, 
and  a  complete  practical  atheistic  woman ;  —  would 
marriage  be  possible  between  the  two  ?  By  no 
means  !  Not  at  all  I  Juxtaposition  of  bodies  is  all 
that  would  take  place.  Selfishness  is  never  a  bond 
of  real  wedlock. 

Philosophers  in  the  last  century,  in  France,  thought 
that  the  Spider  had  not  yet  developed  all  its  econ- 
6 


62  PKACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

omy,  but  might  be  made  use  of  for  nice  purposes  of 
fabric  and  manufacture  amongst  men.  They 
thought  they  could  get  the  filament  of  a  web  finer 
than  that  of  the  silkworm's  weaving,  out  from  the 
spider's  mouth.  The  spider  is  not  gregarious.  The 
philosophers  gathered  together  an  innumerable  host 
of  the  insects  and  shut  them  up  in  one  room,  and 
set  them  to  weaving,  feeding  them  with  flies  and 
other  food  which  the  spider's  appetite  longed  for. 
After  a  few  days  there  was  only  a  single  spider  left. 
They  fought  with  each  other,  and  slew  one  another, 
till  the  king-spider  was  the  only  one  left,  and  self- 
ishness had  eat  itself  up. 

III.  See  how  practical  atheism  will  appear  in  a 
larger  form  of  action,  —  the  Social  Form,  in  the 
Neighborhood  and  Community.  The  normal  basis 
of  society  is  first  the  gregarious  instinct,  which  we 
have  in  common  with  sheep  and  kine ;  next,  the 
social  will,  which  is  peculiar  to  man,  and  has  this 
eflfect  on  the  gregarious  instinct,  —  it  is  to  join 
men  together  in  such  a  way  that  the  individuality 
of  each  shall  be  preserved,  while  the  sociality  of  all 
is  made  sure  of.  That  cannot  take  place  with  the 
animals ;  and  for  this  reason,  —  because  they  are  not 
persons,  and  free  spkitual  individuality  does  not 
seem  of  so  much  value  among  sheep  and  kine  as 
amongst  men.  Each  particular  Ox  may  be  only 
"  so  much  of  the  ox   kind ; "    this   Bison   only  so 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  63 

much  of  the  bison-kind,  and  that  Buffalo  so  much  of 
the  buffalo-kind ;  and  the  individuality  of  either  is 
of  no  great  value  for  the  development  of  the  ox  or 
the  ox -kind.  But  when  you  come  to  man,  Thomas 
is  one  man,  and  Oliver  is  another,  and  Jason  is  a 
third ;  and  it  is  just  as  necessary  to  preserve  the  free 
spiritual  individuality  of  each  one  of  these  as  the 
individuality  of  the  human  race.  Therefore  this 
social  will  must  so  control  the  gregarious  instinct 
that  the  individual  shall  be  kept  whole  while  social- 
ity is  made  sure  of. 

Then  there  is  a  third  thing;  namely,  the  religious 
aspiration,  which  desires  the  absolutely  true,  just, 
and  lovely ;  and  this  desire  can  only  be  brought  out 
in  full  action  in  the  company  or  society  of  men. 

Accordingly  in  a  normal  society  there  will  be, 
first,  individual  self-love,  seeking  to  develop  and 
enjoy  itself;  then  the  social  affection,  seeking  to 
delight  and  develop  others  about  us ;  and  these  two 
may  be  so  coordinated  that  the  individual  is  kept  in 
society,  and  the  mass  also  is  developed  and  blessed 
by  the  concurrent  desire  to  enjoy  and  to  delight, 
then  there  will  also  be  the  religious  love  of  God,  the 
ideal  True,  Just,  Loving,  and  Holy,  involving  as 
it  does  the  religious  love  of  men.  In  short,  that 
will  be  a  society  shaped  by  the  Golden  Rule. 

But  the  society  of  atheism  must  be  a  mutuality 
of  selfishness ;  a  society  of  bodies  without  souls ; 
ruled  by  selfishness,  not  conscious  affection ;  for  an 


64  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

earth  without  a  heaven,  in  a  world  without  a  God ; 
and  in  a  world,  too,  without  actual  reverence,  which 
comes  instinctively  into  every  person  above  the 
rank  of  the  idiot ;  —  for  with  atheists  reverence  must 
take  either  the  outward  form  of  servility  and  base- 
ness, or  the  inward  form  of  gross  self-esteem.  So 
this  must  be  a  short-sighted  selfishness,  which  lays 
out  for  to-day,  but  never  lays  up  for  to-morrow. 

All  conjunctions  of  selfishness  must  needs  be  a 
warfare.  The  individual  is  a  warfare  of  contending 
passions,  lust  striving  against  acquisitiveness,  and 
ambition  against  amativeness.  The  family  must  be 
a  warfare  of  men  and  women  striving  for  mastery. 
Society  must  be  a  warfare  of  great  and  little,  of 
cunning  and  foolish,  rich  and  poor,  cultivated  and 
ignorant,  —  contending  for  mastery.  Amongst  all 
these,  the  strong  passion  will  carry  it  in  the  individ- 
ual, the  strong  person  in  the  family,  and  the  strong 
class  in  society  ;  and  therefore  no  peace  is  at  all 
possible  till  the  strong  passion  has  subdued  the  weak 
in  the  individual,  the  strong  man  the  weak  man  in 
the  family,  and  the  strong  class  has  got  its  heel  on  the 
throat  of  the  weak  class  in  society.  Then  there  wdll 
be  unity,  and  the  conquering  passion  will  proclaim 
peace  where  it  has  made  a  solitude.  The  social  aim 
will  be  to  rule  over  others,  and  make  them  serve  you  ; 
to  give  them  the  least  and  get  the  most  from  them ; 
and  then  he  will  be  thought  the  most  fortunate  man 
and  so  the  most  "  respectable  "  in  the  community, 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  65 

and  "  honorable "  in  the  state,  who  does  the  least 
service  for  mankind,  and  gets  the  most  pay  and  the 
most  power  from  them.  Society  will  be  controlled 
by  selfish  propensities,  not  moral  ideas,  affectional 
feelings,  or  religious  aspirations  for  ideal  perfection. 
See  how  this  principle  will  work  practically  in 
social  affairs.  Such  is  the  distribution  of  faculties 
amongst  men  that  a  few  persons  always  control  the 
mass  of  men.  We  may  deny  this  because  we  are 
Democrats,  but  it  is  a  fact  which  everywhere  stares 
us  in  the  face.  It  is  so  with  gregarious  animals. 
The  strong  barn-yard  fowl  is  always  cock  of  the 
walk,  and  rules  the  roost  just  as  he  will,  only  as  he 
has  but  a  small  margin  of  individual  oscillation, 
little  individual  caprice,  he  rules  according  to  the 
law  of  his  nature,  not  the  caprice  of  his  will.  The 
actual  preponderance  of  the  few  men  over  the  many 
has  hitherto  prevailed  in  all  forms  of  state  govern- 
ment, whether  it  be  called  a  despotism,  an  aristo- 
cracy, or  a  republic.  Six  hundred  men,  self- 
appointed  almost,  meet  together  in  two  Conventions 
at  Baltimore,  and  select  two  men,  and  then  say  to 
the  people,  —  "  One  of  these  is  to  be  your  President 
for  four  years."  And  the  twenty  millions  fling  up 
their  caps  and  say  which  of  the  two  it  shall  be ;  and 
the  majority  thinks  it  has  made  the  President.  If 
the  Conventions  had  selected  two  kidnappers,  —  the 
Philadelphia  kidnapper  on  one  side,  and  the  Boston 
kidnapper  on  the  other,  —  one  of  these  would  as 
6* 


bb  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

assuredly  be  President  as  either  of  the  actual  nomi- 
nees will  be.  This,  I  say,  is  so  at  present.  It  is  a 
fact  all  over  the  world,  in  republics  as  well  as  in  des- 
potisms. The  political  "  democrat"  has  commonly 
been  also  a  despot. 

But  the  principle  on  which  atheistic  society  must 
needs  be  founded  must  be  that  of  mere  private  self- 
ishness.      So   ail  the   rulers    must  of   necessity  be 
tyrants,  ruling  with  cruel  and  selfish  aims.     Oppres- 
sion, which  is  a  Measure  in  the  practice  of  men,  must 
be  also  a  Principle  in  the  theory  of  the  atheist,  the 
accidental  actual  of   history  will   then  become  the 
substantial  ideal  of  nature.     The  most  appropriate 
nomination  in  that  case  would  be  the  nomination  of 
the  kidnappers.     The  capitalist  wishes  to  operate  by 
his  money ;  that  is  his  tool  to  increase  his  power  of 
selfish  enjoyment.     The  operative  wishes  to  act  by 
his  hand  and  head ;  these  are  his  tools  to  increase 
his  power  of  selfish  enjoyment.     But  both  must  be 
thoroughly  selfish  in  principle,  and  so  they  will  be 
'  natural  and  irreconcilable  enemies  waging  a  war  of 
extermination.     Accordingly  the  capitalist  will  aim 
to   get  the   operatives'  work  without   giving  them 
pay ;  and  the  operatives  will  aim  to  get  the  capital- 
ist's money  without  giving  him  the  work ;  and  so 
there  will  be  a  perpetual  "  strike  "  and  warfare  be- 
tween the  two,  each  continually  laying  at  the  other 
with  all  his  might.     The  harmony  of  society  will  be 
the   equilibrium   of    selfishness ;   and   that  will   be 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  67 

brought  about  when  the  strong  has  crushed  down 
the  weak,  has  got  him  under  his  foot  and  has  des- 
troyed him.  Harmony  will  take  place  when  the  last 
spider  has  eaten  up  all  his  coadjutors.  The  social 
peace  of  atheism  is  solitude. 

In  trade  the  aim  will  be  to  accumulate  money  — 
no  matter  how  it  is  got,  by  fraud,  by  lies,  by  rack- 
rent  on  houses,  by  ruinous  usury  on  land,  or  less 
ruinous  piracy  on  the  sea.  The  man  will  allow 
nothing  to  stand  between  him  and  the  dollar  he 
covets,  no  intellectual  idea,  no  moral  principle,  no 
affectional  feeling,  no  religious  emotion.  Mr.  New 
England  is  greedy  for  money  ;  Mr.  South  Carolina 
greedy  for  slaves.  Mr.  New  England  steals  men  in 
Africa,  or  in  Massachusetts,  and  sells  them  to  his 
brother,  Mr.  South  Carolina,  getting  great  pay.  You 
say  to  both  of  these,  This  is  very  v^rrong;  it  is 
inhuman,  it  is  wicked.  But  the  atheists  say, 
"  What  do  we  know  about  wrong  and  right  ?  "  "I 
only  know,"  says  Mr.  New  England,  "  it  brings  me 
money."  "  I  only  know  it  brings  me  slaves,"  says 
Mr.  South  Carolina.  "  All  we  want  is  money  and 
slaves."  You  can  have  nothing  further  to  say  to 
these  two  gentlemen. 

Mr.  Salem  sends  cargoes  of  rum  to  Africa,  and 
when  it  gets  there  dilutes  it  with  half  its  bulk  of 
water,  drugs  it  to  its  old  intoxicating  power,  and  then 
sells  it  to  the  black  man,  who  is  made  just  as  drunk, 
and  a  little  more  poisoned  than  if  he  had  the  genu- 


68  PRACTICAL    ATHEISM. 

ine  article,  the  only  thing  to  which  New  England 
has  characteristically  given  its  name.  He  sells  this 
to  the  black  man,  and  sells  him  also  powder  and 
balls  to  use  in  capturing  his  brother  men ;  and  when 
they  are  caught  he  "  prudently  "  leaves  some  other 
American  to  take  and  transport  them  to  market  at 
Rio,  or  Cuba,  with  the  sanction  of  the  American, 
government.  You  say  to  Mr.  Salem,  This  is  all 
wicked.  "  "What  do  I  care  for  that?"  says  he.  "  It 
brings  me  very  good  money,  very  good  honor,  the 
first  respectability.  You  don't  think  it's  righteous- 
ness I  am  trading  for,  that  I  baptize  Negroes  with 
poisoned  rum  for  the  sake  of  their  '  Salvation  ! '  I 
leave  that  matter  and  the  '  Justification  of  Slavery  ' 
to  the  Christian  clergy.  It  is  quite  enough  for  the 
merchant  to  make  slaves.  I  leave  it  to  the  ministers 
to  prove  it  is  right.  You  think  I  am  aiming  at 
'  Heaven,'  do  you  ?     You  are  very  young.  Sir !  " 

But,  say  you,  you  are  false  to  your  natural 
obligations  to  do  right,  to  speak  true,  to  feel  kind, 
and  to  be  holy.  "  Obligations  of  that  sort!  I 
know  no  such  obligations.  This  is  consciousness 
w^ithout  a  conscience."  At  least  you  must  fear 
the  judgment  passed  against  wrong  in  the  next 
life?  —  say  you,  almost  driven  to  your  last  appeal. 
"  But  I  know  no  next  life,"  says  he,  "  Here  is  the 
present  life  ;  I  am  sure  of  that."  But  at  least  you 
reverence  God  ?  "  Not  at  all,"  says  Mr.  Salem. 
"  It  is  a  world  without  a  God." 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  69 

If  a  man  starts  with  such  a  theory  of  the  universe, 
and  such  principles  of  practice,  what  can  you  say  to 
him  ?  Call  on  that  man  for  heroism  when  your 
country  is  in  danger,  and  he  creeps  under  the  oven. 
Call  on  him  for  charity  when  the  country  is  starving, 
and  he  sells  bread  for  a  dollar  a  pound.  You  can 
get  nothing  from  him  but  selfishness.  An  atheistic 
community  could  not  build  a  free  school-house,  or 
an  Alms-house,  or  a  Hospital,  only  a  Jail.  Behold 
atheism  carried  into  society. 

Now,  as  I  said  the  other  day,  there  is  not  much 
acknowledged  speculative  atheism,  —  acknowledged 
to  one's  self,  —  but  there  is  a  great  deal  of  partial 
practical  atheism,  which  lets  houses  at  rack-rent,  to 
the  ruin  of  the  tenant ;  which  lets  money  at  rack-usury, 
to  the  ruin  of  the  borrower  ;  sells  rum  to  the  ruin  of 
the  buyer;  it  deals  falsely  in  honorable  goods  — 
there  may  be  as  much  baseness  in  the  dealing,  as 
danger  in  the  merchandise,  —  and  then  with  the 
profits  it  builds  up  great  houses,  which  are  palaces 
for  selfishness.  I  look  on  them  as  on  the  rude  hov- 
els of  the  buccaneers  of  Jamaica  and  the  Caribbees, 
who  went  down  to  the  shore  of  the  Spanish  main 
and  murdered  the  crews  of  the  ships  they  took,  and 
then  carried  the  ships  to  port  and  broke  them  to 
pieces  to  build  up  their  own  houses  from  the  frag- 
ments. You  ask  these  men  to  forbear  from  destroy- 
ing their  brothers.  You  appeal  to  their  humanity, 
—  and  they  are  true  to  their  practical  atheism.    You 


70  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

appeal  to  justice,"  —  they  know  it  not ;  to  respect  for 
conscience,  —  they  have  none  of  it ;  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  God,  —  they  recognize  no  such  thing.  Tell 
these  men  of  some  absolute  right,  of  their  immortal 
soul,  —  it  is  all  a  dream. 

Am  I  speaking  mere  fictions?  When  Boston  had 
kidnapped  Thomas  Simms,  and  carried  him  away, 
two  members  of  a  Christian  church  in  this  city,  both 
merchants,  met  accidentally  in  its  chief  business 
street,  and  talked  the  matter  over.  Both  disliked  the 
deed;  but  one  justified  it,  and  said,  "  If  we  didn't 
do  this  we  should  n't  get  any  more  trade  from  the 
South,  and  I  remember  we  have  got  to  live  here." 
"  So  do  I,"  said  the  other,  "  remember  we  have  got 
to  live  hereafter."  There  were  practical  atheism  and 
practical  religion  looking  one  another  in  the  face, 
Boston  went  to  the  side  of  practical  atheism,  as  you 
know,  thinking  there  was  no  Higher  Law. 

There  is  a  gi'eat  deal  of  social  practical  atheism 
which  appears  under  the  guise  and  with  the  name 
of  religion.  This  is  the  most  ghastly,  the  most 
deadly  kind  :  the  more  consistent  atheist  will  join  the 
church.  It  is  concealed,  —  a  wolf  in  sheep's  cloth- 
ing; still  a  wolf,  and  his  jaws  are  there  under  the 
innocent  covering  of  the  lamb.  It  is  Satan  trans- 
formed "  into  an  angel  of  light,"  but  still  the  old 
devil,  spite  of  usurping  the  angel's  wings. 

Here  is  an  example  of  that.  A  man  of  property 
in  this  city  dishonestly  failed ;  dishonestly,  and  yet 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  71 

legally  became  a  bankrupt ;  paid  his  creditors  six- 
pence or  a  shilling  on  the  dollar;  and  secured  to 
himself  considerable  property,  getting  a  discharge 
from  all  his  creditors  except  one.  Afterwards  he 
became  rich.  The  poor  man  who  had  refused  to 
compound  his  debt  claimed  his  due.  The  rich  man 
did  not  deny  that  it  was  justly  due,  only  declared  it 
was  not  legally  due ;  there  was  no  redress.  At 
length  our  defaulting  debtor  "  experienced  religion," 
as  they  say ;  —  I  call  it  experiencing  theology,  and 
very  poor  theology  besides  ;  "  experienced  religion  " 
at  one  of  the  sectarian  churches  of  Boston,  —  and 
became  what  is  there  called  "  a  religious  man  ; " 
and  came  up  before  a  communion  table,  and  pro- 
fessed to  commune  with  God  and  Christ  and  man, 
through  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine.  Our  poor 
creditor  goes  to  him  again,  and  says,  "  Now^  I  hope 
you  will  pay  me,  since  you  have  become  a  '  religious 
man'  and  have  joined  the  church."  Quoth  the 
debtor,  "  Business  is  business,  and  religion  is  reli- 
gion. Business  is  for  the  week  and  religion  for 
Sunday"  —  and  paid  him  not  a  cent.  There  was 
social  practical  atheism  in  the  guise  of  religion,  all 
the  more  consistent  in  that  garb. 

Sometimes  practical  atheism  gets  into  the  pulpit 
as  well  as  the  pews,  and  then  it  is  tenfold  more 
deadly ;  for  it  poisons  the  wells  of  society,  and  then 
diffuses  the  contents  abroad  as  the  waters  of  life. 
It  cries  out  "  Ho !  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  up 


72  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

here  and  be  comforted  in  your  sins."  Ask  such  a 
man  of  that  denomination  to  preach  against  any- 
popular  wickedness  which  shakes  the  steeple  over 
his  head,  and  which  jars  the  great  Bible  on  his  pul- 
pit's lid;  ask  him  to  preach  against  wickedness 
which  turns  one  half  his  congregation  into  voluptu- 
aries,—  victims  of  passion, —  and  the  other  half  into 
hunkers,  — victims  of  ambition,  —  and  he  only  cries, 
"  Save  us,  Good  Lord !  "  Tell  him  of  some  noble 
excellence  that  is  going  abroad  into  society,  and  is 
ready  to  be  struck  down  by  the  wickedness  of  the 
world,  and  ask  him  to  speak  only  a  word  in  its  favor 
over  the  cushions  of  his  pulpit,  and  he  mumbles, 
"  Miserable  Offenders !  Save  us,  Good  Lord."  That 
is  all  he  can  say. 

All  these  practically  deny  the  Higher  Law.  I  am 
not  speaking  of  momentary  errors.  You  all  know  I 
am  far  more  charitable  than  most  men  to  all  eiTors 
of  that  sort.  I  know  myself  how  easy  it  is  to  do 
wrong;  how  many  depraved  things  may  be  done 
without  any  depravity  in  the  human  heart.  But 
atheism  of  this  sort,  disguised  or  undisguised,  —  I 
cannot  express  the  abhorrence  and  loathing  that  I 
feel  for  the  thing.  Offences  are  one  thing,  but  the 
theory  which  makes  offences — that  is  the  baser  thing. 

Look  about  you  and  see  how  much  there  is,  how- 
ever, of  practical  atheism  not  confessed  to  itself. 
The  Sadducee  comes  forward  and  says,  "  There  is 
no    Angel,   no    Resurrection;"    and    men    cry   out 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  73 

"Atheist!"  "away  with  him  I "  The  Pharisee 
devours  widows'  houses,  and  then  struts  into  the 
temple,  drops  with  brassy  ring  his  shekel  into  the 
public  chest,  and  stands  before  the  seven  golden  can- 
dlesticks in  the  temple,  and  prays,  "  God,  I  thank 
thee  that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are,  extortioners,, 
unjust,  adulterers,  or  even  as  this  publican.  I  fast 
twice  in  the  week;  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  pos- 
sess." Men  cry  out,  "  This  is  a  Saint !  a  great 
Christian!"  —  and  run  over  the  poor  widow  who  is 
dropping  into  the  alms-box  her  two  mites,  all  the 
living  that  she  has,  and  tread  her  down.  This  prac- 
tical social  atheism  is  the  death  of  all  heroism,  all 
manliness,  all  beauty,  all  love. 

IV.  See  this  practical  atheism  in  the  Political 
Form,  in  the  Nation.  The  normal  motive  of  national 
union  is  the  gregarious  instinct  and  the  social  will, 
acting  in  their  larger  modes  of  operation,  and  joining 
men  by  mutuality  of  interest,  and  mutuality  of  love. 
This  is  the  foundation  of  all  real  patriotism.  Then 
the  union  will  be  for  the  sake  of  the  universal  good 
of  all,  and  the  particular  good  of  each.  National 
institutions,  constitutions,  and  statutes  will  be  the 
result  of  a  national  desire  for  what  is  useful  to-day, 
and  for  what  is  absolutely  true,  just,  lovely,  and  holy. 
There  will  be  a  coordination  of  the  particular  desire 
of  Thomas  and  Jane,  each  seeking  his  own  special 
good,  in  the  action  of  personal  self-love  ;  and  of  the 

7 


74  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

general  desire  of  the  nation  seeking  the  united  good 
of  all  in  the  joint  action  of  self-love  and  of  benevo- 
lence. All  of  this  let  me  represent  by  one  word. 
Justice,  a  symbol  alike  of  the  transient  and  eternal 
interests  of  both  all  and  each.  All  national  statutes 
will  come  from  the  conscience  of  the  nation,  which 
aims  to  make  them  so  as  to  conform  with  the  con- 
science of  God,  as  that  is  shown  in  the  constitution 
of  the  Universe,  in  the  unchanging  laws  of  Human 
Nature,  which  represent  the  Justice  and  the  Love  of 
God.  Then  every  statute  will  be  a  part  of  the  in- 
trinsic law  of  human  nature  writ  out  in  human 
speech,  and  laid  down  as  a  rule  of  conduct  for  men. 
Every  such  statute  will  be  human  and  conventional 
in  its  form,  but  yet  divine  and  absolute  in  its  sub- 
stance, as  all  true  science  is  the  divine  and  absolute 
fact  of  Nature  expressed  in  human  speech.  Then 
the  reason  for  obeying  the  human  statutes  will  be  the 
natural  obligation  to  speak  true,  do  right,  feel  kind, 
and  be  holy ;  for  so  far  as  the  statutes  of  men  repre- 
sent the  natural  law  of  God,  it  is  moral,  and  obliga- 
tory on  all  to  observe  them ;  but  beyond  this  point 
obedience  to  those  statutes  is  obligatory  on  no  man, 
but  is  immoral,  unmanly,  and  wicked. 

But  the  politics  of  practical  atheism  must  be  based 
on  selfishness.  As  selfishness  prevails  in  the  indi- 
vidual establishing  a  personal  anarchy  of  desires ;  in 
the  family,  establishing  a  domestic  anarchy  of  its 
members ;   in  the  community,  establishing  a  social 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  75 

anarchy  in  the  classes  thereof;  so  it  must  prevail  in 
the  state  establishing  a  national  anarchy  in  its  vari- 
ous parts.  Political  morality  is  impossible  in  the 
atheistic  state ;  there  is  only  political  economy, 
which  aims  to  provide  merely  for  the  selfishness  of 
men.  For  by  this  hypothesis,  there  is  a  body  without 
a  soul,  a  here  but  no  hereafter,  a  world  without  a 
God.  Men  will  be  consciously  held  together  by  the 
mutual  and  universal  repulsion  of  selfishness,  not  at 
all  by  the  mutual  and  universal  attraction  of  Justice. 
All  men  will  be  natural  enemies,  joined  by  mutual 
hatred,  huddled  together  by  Want  and  Fear. 

Government  is  a  contrivance  whereby  a  few  men 
control  the  rest.  In  a  democracy  the  majority  of  the 
people  determine  what  great  or  little  man  shall  per- 
form this  function  ;  or  rather  they  think  they  deter- 
mine this,  and  at  least  can  say  who  shall  not  officially 
attempt  this  function.  In  a  despotism  the  majority 
have  not  that  privilege  — but  the  great  or  little  man 
himself  determines  who  shall  control  the  nation. 
In  the  state  of  practical  political  atheism,  in  either 
case  the  government  must  be  one  of  selfishness  — 
the  controlling  power  seeking  the  most  for  itself  and 
the  least  for  the  people.  So  the  government  will  be 
a  tyranny  representing  only  the  selfishness  of  the 
ruling  power.  In  all  cases  the  appeal  must  be  to 
Superior  Force  — to  that  is  the  proximate  appeal,  to 
that  the  ultimate.  Now  it  will  be  Force  of  Body,  then 
Force  of  Cunning.     The  government  may  assume 


76  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

various  forms,  —  the  controlling  power  may  be  a 
king,  a  monarchy  of  selfishness ;  a  few  great  fami- 
lies, an  aristocracy  of  selfishness  ;  or  the  majority,  a 
democracy  of  selfishness :  but  the  substance  is  still 
the  same,  —  tyranny  and  despotism,  subjecting  the 
world  to  monarchic,  aristocratic,  or  democratic  force  ; 
a  rule  of  the  strong  over  the  weak,  and  against  the 
transient  and  permanent  interests  of  the  weak.  To 
the  individual  whose  natural  rights  are  destroyed,  it 
is  of  small  consequence  whether  the  destroyer  is 
single-headed,  several-headed,  or  many-headed.  Po- 
litical atheism  in  one,  in  few,  or  in  many,  is  still  the 
same. 

Special  maxims  and  special  aims  will  vary  with 
special  forms  of  government.  Is  the  controlling 
power  a  monarch,  he  will  say,  "  the  king  can  do  no 
wrong,"  and  above  all  things  aim  to  protect  the  con- 
ventional privilege  of  kings.  Is  it  an  aristocracy  of 
long  descent,  the  maxim  will  be,  "  Birth  before 
Merit ;  "  "  the  nobility  cannot  err ;  "  they  will  make 
all  the  power  of  the  people  serve  to  rock  the  cradle 
for  men  of  famous  line,  scorning  the  common  mor- 
tal's "  puddle-blood."  Is  it  a  company  of  capitalists, 
the  maxim  will  be  "  Property,  before  persons,"  "  let 
the  State  take  care  of  the  rich,  and  they  will  take 
care  of  the  people  ; "  "  money  can  do  no  wrong." 
They  will  aim  to  oppress  the  poor  and  make  them 
servants,  serfs,  or  slaves.  Is  it  a  mob  of  proletaries, 
"Property   is    theft,"    "the    majority    can    do    no 


PRACTICAL   ATUEISM.  77 

wrong,"  "  Minorities  have  no  rights,"  will  be  the 
maxim,  and  to  plunder  the  rich  the  aim. 

Political  atheism  is  the  exploitation  of  the  people, 
—  by  the  selfishness  of  the  king,  the  nobles,  or  the 
majority  ;  all  right  must  yield  to  might.  There  is  no 
moral  element  in  the  laws — in  making,  administer- 
ing, or  obeying  them ;  for  atheism  itself  knows  no 
obligation,  no  duty,  no  right,  only  force  and  desire* 
All  government  is  a  reign  of  terror. 

In  the  atheistic  state  there  must  be  another  class. 
As  the  formal  negation  of  atheism  and  the  affirma- 
tion of  the  opposite  thereof,  is  one  form  of  its  prac- 
tical profession,  so  the  priesthood  of  atheism,  an 
atheistic  clergy,  is  philosophically  as  possible,  and 
historically  as  real,  as  the  monarchy,  the  aristocracy, 
or  the  democracy  of  atheism.  The  clergy  will  be  the 
ally  of  the  tyrant,  the  enemy  of  the  oppressed,  of  the 
poor,  the  ignorant,  the  servant,  the  serf,  the  slave. 
In  the  name  of  the  Soul  which  it  rejects,  of  the 
Hereafter  which  it  denies,  of  the  God  whom  it  de- 
rides, the  atheistic  church  will  declare  "  there  is  no 
law  above  the  pleasure  of  King  Monarch,  or  King 
Many.  Obey  or  be  damned."  So  iu  the  atheistic 
state  the  atheistic  church  will  be  supple  to  the  mas- 
ter, and  hate  the  slave ;  will  cringe  to  power,  and 
abhor  all  which  appeals  to  the  Eternal  Right ;  will 
love  empire  and  hate  piety.  Now  it  will  praise 
royalty,  now  nobility,  now  riches,  now  numbers, 
claiming  always  that  the  actual  power  holds  by  di- 

n  * 


78  PRACTICAL  ATHEISM. 

vine  right.  This  is  the  most  odious  form  of  practical 
political  atheism,  —  the  negation  of  itself,  the  affirm- 
ation of  its  opposite,  crushing  man  while  it  whines 
out  its  litany  — "  Save  us,  good  Lord,  miserable 
offenders." 

Hobbes  of  Mahnesbury,  was  right  when  he  said 
"  Atheism  is  the  best  ally  of  despotism,"  for  it  denies 
the  reality  of  Justice ;  takes  Conscience  out  of  human 
consciousness,  the  Soul  out  of  the  body,  Hereafter 
away  from  here,  and  dismisses  God  from  the  uni- 
vere  —  selfishness  the  only  motive,  force  the  last 
appeal.  That  politician  was  a  crafty  man  who  said 
of  religion  —  "  in  politics  it  makes  men  mad,"  for  it 
bids  them  speak  true,  do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be  holy 
against  the  consent  of  governments  when  they 
stand  in  its  way.  Alexander  at  a  feast  slew  Clitus, 
both  drunk  with  Bacchic  wine.  One  of  the  flatter- 
ers, not  drunk  but  sober,  said  "  it  is  all  right,  there 
is  no  law  above  the  king ! "  That  was  practical 
political  atheism  —  the  sober  flatterer  exalting  a 
drunken  murderer  above  the  Eternal  God ;  the  excep- 
tional measure  of  a  king,  raging  with  wine  and 
anger,  was  made  a  universal  principle  for  all  time. 

Here  in  this  nation  there  is  much  partial  practical 
atheism  in  the  political  form.  Look  at  the  corrup- 
tion, the  bribery  of  eminent  men,  sometimes  detect- 
ed, acknowledged,  and  vindicated ;  at  the  conduct  of 
political  parties,  no  one  seeking  to  govern  the  nation 
for  the  joint  good  of   all  the  citizens,  only  for  the 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  79 

peculiar  good  of  the  party  in  power ;  at  the  tyranny 
of  the  majority,  striking  down  the  obvious  right  of 
the  lesser  number ;  at  three  million  men  made  slaves 
by  the  people  of  America :  —  what  is  it  all  but  par- 
tial practical  atheism?  I  am  glad  political  men 
boldly  declare  the  speculative  principle  which  lies  at 
the  basis  of  their  practical  measures  and  tell  the 
people,  "  There  is  no  Natural  Law  above  the  stat- 
utes which  men  enact : "  no  God  above  king  Monarch, 
or  king  Many.  I  am  glad  they  "  define  their  posi- 
tion," all  atheistic  as  it  is.  Look  at  the  political  and 
clerical  defences  of  the  most  enormous  public  wick- 
edness, and  you  see  how  deep  this  practical  atheism 
has  gone  down  into  the  people,  how  widely  it  has 
spread.  But  the  hope  which  I  have  for  this  nation 
is  built  on  the  Character  of  God,  and  on  the  con- 
sciousness of  God  in  the  people's  heart. 

V.  You  may  see  how  practical  atheism  must 
work  in  the  form  of  General  Human  Life,  the  Life 
of  the  Human  Race  taken  as  a  whole.  Mankind  is 
a  Family  of  Nations,  amenable  to  the  constitution 
of  the  universe,  and  normally  to  be  ruled  by  the 
laws  of  human  nature, by  justice  —  by  the  moral  obli- 
gation to  speak  true,  to  do  right,  feel  kind,  and  be 
holy.  As  the  members  in  the  body  form  a  harmonious 
person ;  as  the  individuals  in  a  house  form  a  harmo- 
nious family ;  as  the  families  in  society  form  a  har- 
monious   community ;    as    the    communities   in   a 


80  PRACTICAL    ATHEISM. 

nation  form  a  harmonious  state ;  so  the  nations  on 
the  earth  are  to  form  a  harmonious  World,  with 
human  unity  of  action  for  all,  with  national  variety 
of  action  for  each  state,  social  variety  of  action  for 
each  community,  domestic  for  each  family,  and 
individual  for  each  person.  Justice  is  to  be  the 
rule  of  conduct  for  individual,  domestic,  social, 
national,  and  general  human  conduct.  Thus  the 
ideal  of  human  life  in  these  five  forms  will  be 
attained  and  made  actual. 

But  practical  atheism  makes  selfishness,  material 
selfishness  the  motive,  and  material  desire  the  iTile 
of  conduct  for  the  nations  which  make  up  the  w^orld, 
as  for  communities  which  compose  the  state,  or  for 
persons  who  join  in  families.  So  the  World  of  athe- 
ism, like  its  state,  society,  family,  and  man,  must  be 
only  an  anarchy  of  conflicting  elements,  the  strong 
plundering,  enslaving,  or  killing  the  weak.  The  prox- 
imate and  ultimate  appeal  will  be  to  force,  now  force 
of  body,  then  force  of  brain. 

Here  I  will  not  repeat  w^hat  I  have  said  before  in 
another  form  ;  but  practical  atheism  will  do  on  the 
large  scale  what  it  did  on  the  small  in  the  state, 
community,  and  home.  Each  nation  will  be  deemed 
its  own  exclusive  cause,  its  own  sustainer,  director, 
mind,  and  providence.  "  There  is  no  law  of  God 
above  the  nation's  will,"  says  the  Atheist;  "no  God 
above  the  peoples  of  the  earth.  Let  us  bite  and 
devour  one  another." 


PRACTICAL  ATHEISM.  81 

There  is  much  practical  atheism  of  this  form  in 
the  world.  See  how  Russia  oppresses  the  feebler 
nations  of  the  East  and  West.  See  how  this  great 
Anglo-Saxon  tribe,  with  its  American  and  its  Brit- 
ish head,  invades  the  other  feeble  nations,  —  the  yel- 
low-men in  Asia  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  the 
red  men  in  America,  and  the  black  men  in  Africa. 
It  is  only  practical  atheism  which  in  England  justi- 
fies her  treatment  of  Ireland,  of  India,  China,  Africa, 
and  yet  other  regions  of  the  world  :  in  America  it  is 
only  by  practical  atheism  that  we  can  vindicate  our 
treatment  of  the  Mexican  and  the  Spaniard ;  still 
more  of  the  red  man  and  the  black.  Atheism  bids 
the  powerful  exploiter  the  weak  —  now  with  the 
sword  alone  —  the  heathen  way  of  Rome  ;  now  with 
commerce  and  the  sword  —  the  Christian  way  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon. 

I  would  gladly  say  much  more  that  burns  in  my 
bosom  to  be  spoken,  respecting  atheism  in  its  Political 
and  General  Human  Form,  Atheism  making  laws, 
atheism  crushing  down  the  people.  I  would  gladly 
show  how  this  manifests  itself  in  wicked  wars.  I 
could,  never  look  on  an  army  invading  another  coun- 
try to  do  it  wrong,  without  asking,  "Are  the  men 
who  send  the  army  abroad  atheists  before  men,  as 
well  as  before  God  ?  "  I  would  gladly  speak  of  this 
in  its  Universal  Form,  —  arraying  nation  against 
nation,  making  the  strong   tread  down  the  weak. 


82  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

But  yonder  silent  finger  warns  me  that  I  must  not 
trespass  too  long. 


Speculative  atheism  is  a  thing  human  nature 
revolts  at.  So  of  speculative  atheists,  who  have  a 
full  consciousness  of  complete  atheism,  there  are  at 
most  but  few ;  I  think  not  one.  Practical  atheism 
would  be  just  as  impossible,  if  one  could  be  thor- 
oughly conscious  thereof.  But  without  knowing  it, 
there  are  men  who  thus  act,  and  move,  and  live,  and 
have  their  being,  as  if  there  were  no  God ;  as  if  man 
had  no  soul;  as  if  there  w^as  no  special  obligation  to 
speak  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to  be  holy. 
But  there  are  many  depraved  things  done  which 
indicate  no  depravity  in  the  man  —  excesses  of 
instinct  not  yet  understood,  errors  of  passion  un- 
tamed as  yet,  nay  of  ambition,  not  knowing  itself. 
But  there  are  depraved  things  which  come  out  of 
conscious  and  deliberate  wickedness,  —  the  delib- 
erate frauds  of  theology  and  trade,  and  the  con- 
fessed wrong  in  domestic,  social,  national,  and  gen- 
eral human  life.  These  are  the  fruits  of  practical 
atheism,  though  the  man  knows  not  what  tree  it  is' 
which  bears  them. 


We  see  atheism  in  two  forms  :  One  speculative, 


PRACTICAL   ATHEISM.  83 

denying  that  there  is  any  God.  I  shudder  at  that. 
I  see  men  of  large  culture  attempting  to  found 
schools  of  speculative  atheism  in  this  fair  land.  My 
bosom  burns  with  pity  and  love  for  those  men. 
Others  may  throw  stones  at  them ;  I  shall  throw 
none.  Abuse  enough  from  every  hireling  clergyman 
they  will  have,  and  every  unreasonable  sect;  they 
shall  have  no  abuse  from  my  lips  ;  for  I  see  how  the 
creed  and  the  conduct  of  the  churches  of  our  land, 
and  of  the  Christian  world,  have  helped  drive  these 
men  to  their  speculative  atheism.  Yet  I  am  bound 
to  warn  every  man  against  this ;  against  its  beginning, 
for  at  first  there  is  something  rather  attractive  in  the 
freedom  of  thought  which  it  allows.  Let  us  have 
all  that  freedom  of  thought,  and  exercise  every  faculty 
of  the  intellect,  and  never  fear.  Little  thought  stops 
at  Atheism  ;  much  thought  does  not  turn  out  of  the 
way  in  that  direction ;  or  if  it  do,  it  comes  round- 
ing home,  and  so  returns  to  God. 

I  see  practical  atheism  far  more  abundant,  and  far 
more  dangerous ;  by  deeds,  men  denying  there  is 
any  God,  any  soul,  any  everlasting  life,  any  obliga- 
tion to  speak  true,  to  do  right,  to  feel  kind,  and  to 
be  holy.     This  is  a  sad  sight. 

Speculative  Atheism  sits  down,  as  I  said  last 
Sunday,  on  the  shore  of  Time,  and  the  stream  of 
Human  History  runs  by,  bearing  the  various  civili- 
zations,—  Egyptian,  East  Indian,  Chaldean,  Gre- 
cian, Eoman  ;  each  seems  a  bubble,  though  it  con- 


84  PRACTICAL   ATHEISM. 

tains  the  birth  and  life,  the  groans  unheard,  the 
virtue  unrewarded,  the  prayers  unanswered,  of  mil- 
lions of  millions  of  men.  Yet  the  remorseless  stream, 
which  comes  from  no  whence,  and  goes  to  no  whither, 
swallows  all  these  down,  —  love  unrequited,  heroism 
not  paid,  virtue  unrewarded. 

Practical  Atheism  does  not  sit  down  in  this  way. 
Practical  Atheism  goes  out  into  the  storm  and  tu- 
mult of  active  life,  and  there  it  stands,  this  Cerberus 
of  selfishness,  with  its  three  heads ;  —  Lust,  which 
hungers  and  barks  after  pleasure  ;  Ambition,  that 
thirsts  for  fame  and  power ;  and  Avarice,  which  is 
greedier  than  all  the  rest.  And  this  monster  of  three 
heads  stands  there,  making  havoc  of  the  individual, 
the  family,  the  community,  the  church,  the  nation, 
and  the  world. 

But,  thanks  be  to  Almighty  God !  not  only  is  the 
religious  element  so  strong  in  us,  but  the  moral  and 
affectional  are  so  powerful,  the  intellectual  so  mighty, 
that  human  nature  must  stop  a  great  ways  this  side 
of  complete  Atheism.  A  body  without  a  soul,  a 
here  but  no  hereafter,  a  history  without  a  plan,  an 
earth  without  a  heaven,  a  universe  but  no  God  — 
no  man  can  have  a  realizing  sense  of  it  and  live. 
Only  let  us  be  warned  in  season,  and  freely  develop 
the  moral,  affectional,  and  religious  faculties,  and 
have  their  blest  reward. 


III. 

OF  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY  OF   CHPJSTENDOM, 
REGARDED  AS  A  THEORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


"teaching    for   doctrines   the    C03IMANDMENTS   OF   MEN." 

Matthew  xv.  9. 

On  the  last  two  Sundays  I  spoke  of  Atheism. 
First  of  Atheism  as  Philosophy,  —  a  theory  of  the 
universe ;  and  next  of  atheism  as  Ethics  —  a  princi- 
ple of  practical  life.  To-day  I  ask  yom*  attention  to 
a  sermon  of  the  Popular  Theology  of  Christendom, 
regarded  as  Philosophy,  a  theory  of  the  universe  ; 
and  next  Sunday  I  hope  to  speak  of  it  as  Ethics, 
a  principle  of  practice. 

From  the  beginning  of  human  history  there  has 
been  a  progressive  development  of  all  the  higher 
faculties  of  man ;  of  the  religious  faculties,  which 
connect  man  with  God,  as  well  as  of  the  other  facul- 
ties, which  connect  man  with  the  material  universe 
and  men  with  one  another.  There  has  been  a 
progress  in  Piety,  in  Morality,  and  in  the  Theories 
of  these  two.  Of  course,  then,  there  has  been  a 
8 


86  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

progress  in  the  visible  results  of  this  development  of 
the  religious  faculties.  The  progress  appears  in  the 
rise,  decline,  and  disappearance  of  various  forms  of 
religion.  Each  of  these  has  been  necessary  to  the 
welfare  of  the  human  race ;  for  at  one  time  it  repre- 
sented the  highest  religious  development  of  the 
persons  who  embraced  that  form  of  religion.  Some- 
times it  was  a  sect ;  sometimes  a  nation ;  sometimes 
a  great  assemblage  of  nations :  but  in  each  case  the 
form  of  religion  which  the  people  accepted  repre- 
sented the  highest  development  of  the  religious 
faculties  of  those  people  at  that  time.  As  the 
science  of  a  nation  represents  its  intellectual  devel- 
opment, so  the  form  of  religion  shows  how  far  men 
have  got  on  in  their  piety  and  morality.  But  as  each 
form  of  religion,  when  it  is  once  established,  is  a 
thing  which  is  fixed  and  does  not  change,  and  as  the 
religious  faculties  are  not  fixed,  but  go  on  with 
increasing  power  from  age  to  age,  so  it  happens  that 
men  must  necessarily  outgrow  any  specific  and 
imperfect  form  of  religion  whatever,  just  as  they 
outgrow  each  specific  and  imperfect  form  of  science. 
Human  nature  continually  transcends  the  facts  of 
human  history,  so  new  schemes  of  science,  new 
forms  of  religion  continually  crowd  off  the  old. 

This  work  of  making  a  form  of  religion,  and  then 
outgrowing  it  and  making  a  new  one,  is  continually 
going  on.  On  a  small  scale  it  takes  place  in  you 
and  me,  who  are  constantly  transcending  to-day  the 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  87 

form  of  religion  which  satisfied  us  yesterday  ;  it 
takes  place  on  a  large  scale  in  the  human  race  as  a 
whole.  Sometimes  a  man  distinctly  and  suddenly 
breaks  with  his  form  of  religion,  or  no  religion,  and 
takes  a  new  one.  Sometimes  a  nation  does  so. 
This  is  called  a  Conversion  of  the  individual,  a  Re- 
formation of  the  nation ;  in  either  case  it  is  a  Revolu- 
tion in  religion.  But  in  general  there  is  nothing  sud- 
den or  abrupt  about  this ;  the  whole  change  takes  place 
silently  and  slowly,  with  no  crisis  of  revolution  ;  but 
insensibly,  little  by  little,  the  boy's  religion  passes 
away  and  the  man's  religion  takes  its  place.  A 
nation  improves  in  its  religion  as  in  its  agriculture, 
its  manufactures,  its  commerce,  and  its  modes  of 
travelling;  and  the  improvement  is  not  by  a  leap, 
which  Nature  abhors,  but  by  a  gradual  sliding 
upwards,  almost  insensible.  It  has  been  so  with 
the  human  race. 

Two  thousand  years  ago  our  fathers  in  the  heart 
of  Europe  were  Pagans.  Ten  or  twelve  hundred 
years  ago  they  put  off  their  Paganism  and  accepted 
Papal  Christianity.  Three  hundred  years  ago  they 
put  off  Papal  Christianity  and  accepted  Protestant 
Christianity.  Each  of  these  obvious  changes,  from 
Paganism  to  Papacy,  from  Papacy  to  Protestantism, 
was  sudden  and  violent,  a  crisis  of  revolution.  But 
before  that  crisis  came  about,  a  yet  greater  change 
had  taken  place,  silently  and  slowly,  the  Pagans  get- 
ting ready  for  Papalism,  and  the  Catholic  getting 


88  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

ready  for  Protestantism.  That  was  unobserved. 
First  they  grew  up  to  Paganism,  then  to  Papal 
Christianity,  and  then  to  Protestant  Christianity. 
Shall  manldnd  stop  at  Paganism  ?  at  Papal  Chris- 
tianity? at  Protestant  Christianity?  You  and  I 
may  perversely  stop,  we  may  stand  still,  —  at  least 
try  to  do  so ;  but  mankind  never  stops.  The  soul 
of  the  human  race  constantly  unfolds ;  it  does  not 
pause.  Like  the  stars  in  their  courses  without  haste 
and  without  rest  it  goes  ever  on.  There  is  a  con- 
tinual and  silent  change  taking  place  at  this  day, 
and  it  must  forever  take  place.  It  is  not  possible  for 
the  human  race  to  stand  still  in  its  religious  develop- 
ment ;  no  more  than  for  the  matter  of  the  Earth  to 
cease  to  attract  the  moon  and  be  itself  attracted 
thereby. 

The  leading  nations  of  the  Caucasian  race  have 
thus  far  outgrown,  first,  the  savages'  rude  Fetichistic 
worship ;  then  classic  Heathenism ;  then  patriarchal 
Deism ;  then  the  Mosaic  worship  of  Jehovah ;  and 
now  the  most  enlightened  portion  thereof  have  come 
to  what  is  called  "  Christianity."  That  is  the  form 
of  religion  which  they  have  reached  to-day.  Shall 
we  stop  with  the  present  form  of  religion  called 
"  Christianity  ? "  Mankind  never  surrenders  to 
time.  There  is  a  progress  in  what  is  called  Chris- 
tianity, a  continual  change  of  the  thing,  though  the 
name  abides  the  same.  Protestantism  is  clearly,  on 
the  whole,  a  step  in  advance  of  Catholicism  —  and 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  89 

Protestantism  has  advanced  very  much  since  the 
death  of  Martin  Luther.  A  change  is  going  on  at 
this  day  within  Catholicism  and  Protestantism. 

What  is  called  Christianity  embraces  three  things, 
namely:  first  Sentiments,  next  Ideas,  and  third 
Actions.  It  is  chiefly  of  the  ideas  that  I  shall  speak 
to-day.  These  ideas  united  together  I  shall  call 
the  Popular  Theology. 

This  Popular  Theology  is  not  wholly  nor  in  chief 
the  work  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  or  of  his  immediate 
followers ;  for,  though  called  by  his  name,  it  is  no  more 
his  production  than  modern  philosophy  is  the  pro- 
duction of  Socrates,  or  modern  medicine  the  produc- 
tion of  Galen.  What  is  called  Christianity  in  this 
sense,  —  the  Popular  theology  I  mean,  —  is  the  result 
of  the  religious  and  philosophical  development  of 
mankind  up  to  this  day.  The  development  of  man- 
kind—  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  sentiment  of 
religion,  the  idea  of  religion,  the  practice  of  religion, 
—  has  gone  on  a  great  deal  more  rapidly  since  the 
time  of  Jesus  than  before  or  at  his  time.  The 
change  which  is  now  taking  place  in  the  religious 
world — the  change  in  the  sentiments  of  religion,  the 
ideas  of  religion,  and  the  actions  of  religion — is 
greater  by  far  than  the  change  from  Judaism  or 
Heathenism  to  the  Christianity  of  Paul  and  Tertul- 
lian.  I  mean  to  say  distinctly  that  between  the 
Ideas  of  the  foremost  religious  men  of  this  age  and 
8* 


90  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

the  popular  theology  of  the  churches,  there  is  a 
greater  chasm,  a  wider  and  deeper  gulf,  than  there 
was  bet^veen  the  ideas  of  Saint  Paul  or  Tertullian 
and  those  of  the  Jews  and  Pagans  who  were  around 
them. 

If  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  to  come  back  and 
preach  his  ideas  of  theology  as  he  set  them  forth  in 
Judea,  they  would  not  be  accepted  as  Christianity. 
I  think  no  one  of  the  apostles  even  would  be 
thought  Christian  in  any  church  in  the  world.  For, 
first,  there  has  been  a  real  progress  of  mankind 
since  their  day;  and  the  average  preachers  have 
dropped  some  errors  of  the  apostles,  and  have  got 
some  new  truths  pertaining  to  the  sentiment,  the 
idea,  and  the  action  of  religion ;  and  thus  there  has 
been  a  real  progress  in  religious  growth. 

But  then  again  there  has  been  a  change  without 
any  progress,  as  well  as  a  change  with  progress  ;  and 
the  caprice  of  individuals  of  to-day  has  taken  the 
place  of  the  caprice  of  the  individuals  who  lived 
ten,  twelve,  or  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  —  one 
error  taking  the  place  of  another.  A  change  of 
caprice  does  not  always  indicate  a  progi-ess;  but 
the  acceptance  of  new  truths  —  of  sentiment,  of 
idea,  and  of  action  —  does  represent  a  real  progress. 

This  progress  has  been  influenced  very  much  by 
the  genius  of  certain  great  men,  some  of  them 
remarkable  for  feelings  of  piety,  some  for  ideas  of 
philosophy,  some  for  actions  of  philanthropy.    Jesus 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  91 

of  Nazareth  has  had  an  immense  influence  in  giving 
mankind  a  start  in  the  direction  which  has  been 
taken  since  his  time.  When  he  declared  that  love 
of  God  and  love  of  man  was  the  sum  of  human 
duty  to  God  and  to  man,  then  he  made  a  statement 
which  can  never  be  gainsaid,  and  which  can  never 
be  transcended,  for  in  that  he  came  upon  the  eternal 
substance  of  religion.  That  idea  can  no  more  fade 
out  of  the  religious  consciousness  of  mankind  than 
the  multiplication  table  be  dispensed  with  in  Math- 
ematics, the  alphabet  in  Literature,  or  the  continent 
of  America  fail  and  be  left  out  of  the  Geographies 
which  describe  the  earth.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  appears 
to  have  summed  up  religion  in  these  two  things, 
namely, — in  Piety,  the  love  of  God;  and  Morality, 
the  keeping  of  the  laws  of  God,  and  especially  in 
keeping  the  law  which  commands  us  to  love  our 
brother  as  ourselves.  But  that  is  at  the  present  day 
thought  to  be  a  very  small  part  of  Christianity ;  and 
it  is  thought  in  all  the  great  sects.  Catholic  or  Prot- 
estant, to  be  the  least  important  part  thereof. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  I  think  Jesus  had  a 
complete  and  analytic  comprehension  of  all  which 
is  included  in  his  own  words,  nor  that  he  did  not  de- 
mand other  things  inconsistent  therewith,  only  that 
he  made  Love  to  God  and  man,  the  chief  thing 
in  his  religious  teaching.  I  make  a  distinction 
between  his  theology  and  his  religion.  His  theology 
seems  to  have  had  many  Jewish  notions  in  it,  wholly 


92  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

untenable  in  onr  day,  though  commonly  accepted  by 
wise  men  in  his.  It  was  in  his  religion  that  he  sur- 
passed his  age. 

If  any  one  of  the  gospels,  or  if  all  of  them  repre- 
sent his  thoughts  correctly,  then  his  theology  con- 
tained a  considerable  mixture  of  error,  which  indeed 
is  obvious  to  any  man  who  will  read  those  records 
without  prejudice.     With  those  records  in  our  hands 
it  would  be  absurd  to  maintain  that  Jesus  entertained 
no  theological  error,  in  matters  of  importance  ;  that 
he   had   all   theologic   truth ;    or  all    the    theologic 
truth  known  to  any  or  all  persons  of  his  own  time. 
From  the  time  of  Moses  to  Jesus  there  was  a  large 
intellectual  and  religious  development  of  mankind, 
a  marked  progress  in  the  religious  sentiments,  ideas, 
and  actions  of  individual  men,  and  of  the  leading 
nations  of   mankind.     From  the  time  of  Jesus  to 
our  time  this  progi'ess,  both  in  individuals  and  in 
nations,  has  been  yet  more  rapid.     Old  errors  have 
been  cast  away,  new  truths  have  been  added  to  the 
consciousness  of  mankind.      The  theology  of   the 
most  eminent   Catholics  or  Protestants  at  this  day 
represents  the  thought  of  Jesus  as  it  appears  in  the 
ablest  of  the  four  Gospels,  no  more  than  a  common 
plough  represents  the  thought  of  the  man  who  first 
broke  up  ground  with  oxen.     No  man  is  so  great  as 
mankind.     If  the  great  genius  at  first  is  so  far  before 
his  brothers  as  to  be  incomprehensible,  by  and  by 
they  overtake  him,  pass  by  him,  and  go  still  farther 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  93 

on  till  they  become  incomprehensible  to  the  man 
who  stands  where  the  genius  once  stood.  I  know 
it  is  thought  very  wicked  to  say  this  in  its  applica- 
tion to  the  historical  development  of  religion,  as  it 
would  be  thought  very  foolish  to  deny  it  in  its  appli- 
cation to  the  historical  development  of  agriculture, 
manufactures,  or  commerce,  to  any  science,  to 
any  art.  Every  great  genius  for  religion  will  add 
new  facts  to  the  world's  experience  of  religion,  just 
as  much  since  the  death  of  Jesus  as  before  his  time. 
The  road  is  easier  after  a  saint  has  trod  it,  and  no 
saint  travels  the  whole  length  thereof. 


Look  at  the  ideas  of  Christendom,  the  doctrines. 
There  is  one  great  scheme  of  doctrines  called  "  Chris- 
tian Theology."  It  contains  some  things  held  in 
common  with  every  other  system  of  theology  that 
has  ever  been ;  they  are  the  generic  element  of  the 
popular  theology.  Then  it  contains  likewise  other 
things  peculiar  to  itself,  which  do  not  belong  to  any 
other  form  of  religion  ;  these  are  the  specific  element 
of  the  popular  theology.  The  first  denote  the 
agreement  thereof  with  other  schemes  of  theology, 
and  the  next  its  difference  therefrom. 

This  great  scheme  of  theology  is  common  to  all 
Christendom  as  a  whole,  with  few  individual  excep- 
tions.    The   Christians  in   general  agree  in  a  belief 


94  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

of  this  common  theology,  and  are  thereby  distin- 
guished from  men  of   all  other  modes  of  religion. 
The  Protestant  has  departed  from  the  Catholic  the- 
ology a  little,  separating  therefrom  on  the  question 
of  the  authority  and  functions  of  the  Church ;  —  the 
Protestant  affirming  the  power  of  the  individual  as 
against  the  power  of  the  great  body  of  Christians. 
The  Unitarian  has  separated  from  other  Protestants 
in  his  doctrine  as  to  the  arithmetic  of  the  Godhead, 
reducing  the  deity  to  one  denomination,  instead  of 
three  which  the  Trinitarians  affirm.     The  Universal- 
ist  differs  from  the  rest  in  his  doctrine  of  the  final 
destination  of  man.  But  still  the  great  "  body  of  divin- 
ity," —  the  mass  of  doctrines  called  "  Christian  theol- 
ogy," and  "  Christianity,"  —  has  escaped  untouched, 
at  least  unhurt  by  Protestants,  —  Unitarians  or  Uni- 
versalists.    So  Protestants  and  Catholics,  Unitarians 
and  Trinitarians,  Universalists  and  Partialists,  agree 
in  the  main  parts  of  their  theology :  they  all  sub- 
stantially unite  in  their  idea  of  God,  their  idea  of 
Man,  and  their  idea  of  the  Relation  between   God 
and  Man.    The  root  is  the  same,  the  trunk  the  same, 
the  fruit  the   same  in  kind,   only  the  branches   are 
unlike  in  their  form,  and  direction. 

Some  of  these  doctrines,  called  Christian,  were 
old  at  the  time  of  Jesus  ;  some  were  new  at  that  time : 
—  some  of  these  latter  were,  doubtless,  added  by  Jesus 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  95 

himself;  others  by  his  followers;  —  a  great  many 
have  been  added  since  that  age,  taken  either  from 
the  transient  caprice  of  men,  or  from  the  permanent 
truths  which  man  has  arrived  at. 

Take  an  example  of  the  doctrines  since  formed 
out  of  the  transient  caprice  of  men,  and  then 
regarded  as   Christian. 

First  it  was  declared  that  the  "  immaculate  concep- 
tion," the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus,  should  be  a 
doctrine  of  the  church.  This  has  become  fixed 
in  the  church,  and  there  has  been  no  sect  for  sixteen 
hundred  years  at  least,  venturing  to  deny  it.  All 
sects,  even  including  the  Unitarian  and  Universalist, 
affirm  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus  —  that  he  had 
no  human  father ;  or  are  supposed  to  affirm  it,  stoutly 
enough  denouncing  such  as  doubt  or  deny  it. 

Then  men  went  further  and  affirmed  the  super- 
natural birth  of  Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus ;  and,  after 
twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  years,  that  became  a  doc- 
trine fixed  in  the  Catholic  Church  which  had  two 
"  immaculate  conceptions."  But  at  the  Reformation 
the  Protestant  churches  rejected  this  latter  doctrine 
with  all  their  might,  staving  it  off  v/ith  both  hands, 
thinking  it  as  great  an  error  to  believe  the  supernat- 
tural  birth  of  the  mother  as  to  doubt  that  of  the  son* 

Men  did  not  stop  there ;  they  went  further,  and 
presently  declared  the  supernatural  birth  of  the 
Mother  of  Mary  to  be  an  essential  doctrine,  —  and 
they  called  that  mother  Anna.     That  idea  is  now 


96  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

in  the  process  of  fixation ;  it  is  getting  formulated, 
—  to  use  a  philosophical  phrase.  That  is  to  say,  it 
has  been  accepted  by  a  portion  of  the  Catholic 
Church ;  and  some  of  the  leaders  are  now  insisting 
that  it  shall  become  a  fixed  doctrine,  a  point  of  Cath- 
olic theology  which  all  are  to  believe,  or  "  perish  ever- 
lastingly." 

This  process  of  doctrinization  by  caprice  may  go 
on;  there  is  no  reason  it  should  stop  here.  By 
and  by  it  may  be  said  that  the  Grandmother,  the 
Great-grandmother,  and  the  Great-great-grandmother 
were  all  born  supernaturally ;  and  then  in  addition  to 
Anna,  the  fictitious  mother  of  Mary,  there  may  be  a 
Joanna,  a  Rosanna,  a  Roxanna,  and  a  Susanna,  and 
each  of  these  declared  to  have  a  supernatural  birth. 
It  may  become  a  doctrine  of  some  future  church 
that  a  man  must  believe  in  all  the  seven  "  immacu- 
late conceptions,"  or  else  "  perish  everlastingly." 
Why  should  Catholics  stop  with  three  while  the 
Hindoos  have  so  many?  There  is  no  historical 
evidence  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ever  believed  him- 
self supernaturally  born,  or  his  mother  supernaturally 
born  ;  and  Anna,  the  mother  of  Mary,  is  a  person  as 
purely  fictitious  as  Joanna,  and  Rosanna,  and  Rox- 
anna,  and  Susanna,  whom  I  have  just  invented. 
That  is  one  example  of  the  process  of  forming  a 
doctrine  out  of  caprice  and  fixing  it  in  the  Church ; 
the  popular  theology  contains  many  more.  The 
Mohammedan  theology  equally  abounds  in  doctrines 


THE    POPULAR   TUEOLOGr.  97 

derived  from  caprice.  Nay,  all  the  mythologies  of 
the  world  are  full  of  such  fancies.  Human  nature 
is  the  same  in  Gentile,  Jew,  and  Christian. 

Some  doctrines  of  Christian  theology  are  Biblical, 
and  were  taught  by  Jesus ;  some  Biblical  and  were 
not  taught  by  him.  After  the  death  of  Jesus  there 
was  a  great  development  of  theological  doctrines 
quite  foreign  to  him,  as  any  one  may  see  who  will 
read  the  book  of  Revelation,  —  which  has  very  little 
religious  sentiment  in  it,  —  or  the  fourth  Gospel,  full 
of  religious  sentiment,  each  containing  a  theology 
widely  unlike  that  which  is  taught  in  the  words  of 
Jesus  in  the  former  three  gospels  ;  nay,  directly  antag- 
onistic thereto.  But  the  greater  part  of  what  is 
called  Christian  theology  is  post-Biblical,  and  would 
be  as  strange  to  Paul  and  Apollos,  as  much  of 
their  teaching  would  be  foreign  to  the  ear  of  Jesus. 
Some  of  its  doctrines  at  his  time  lay  latent  in  the 
mind  of  the  world,  and  have  since  become  patent, 
so  to  say  ;  others  have  been  added  anew. 

In  the  popular  theology  there  are  comprised  some 
of  the  gi'eatest  truths  of  religion  which  man  has 
attained  thus  far. 

There  is,  for  example,  the  doctrine  of  the  Exist- 
ence of  God  as  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world, 
a  Being  different  in  kind  from  matter,  and  from 
man. 

Next,  there  is  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Immor- 
tality of  every  man,  and  the  certainty  of  retribution. 

9 


98         _  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

As  a  third  thing,  there  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
moral  Obligation  of  every  man  to  obey  the  Law  of 
God. 

As  a  fom'th  thing,  there  is  the  doctrine  concerning 
the  Connection  between  Man  and  God,  whereby 
man  receives  from  God  inspiration,  guidance,  and 
blessing. 

And  as  a  fifth  thing,  it  is  affirmed  that  there  is 
this  Connection  between  man  and  man,  —  a  duty 
on  the  part  of  one  to  love  another,  of  all  to  love 
each,  and  of  each  to  love  all. 

These  are  great  doctrines,  of  immense  value  to 
mankind. 

I  am  by  no  means  disposed  to  underrate  science, 
the  grand  achievements  of  human  thought,  which 
have  brought  the  stars  down  to  the  astronomer's 
mirror,  which  have  brought  up  to  common  knowl- 
edge the  little  things  which  millions  of  years  ago 
were  laid  away  and  embalmed  in  the  unchanging 
rock.  These  are  certainly  great  things.  Man  has 
formulated  the  sky  and  knows  the  whereabouts  of 
the  stars ;  has  formulated  the  rock  and  knows  the 
habits  of  the  little  insects  which  you  find  in  a 
piece  of  slate  from  Berlin,  in  the  chalk  of  Dover 
ClifF&,  in  the  sands  under  our  feet,  or  in  the  slime 
that  skirts  our  wharves  as  each  receding  tide  goes 
out.  All  these  are  grand  triumphs  of  human  thought. 
But  tliese  five  great  doctrines  which  I  have  spoken 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  99 

of,  —  the  existence  of  God,  the  immortality  of  man, 
the  moral  obligation  of  man  to  obey  the  law  of  God, 
the  connection  between  man  and  God,  and  the  con- 
nection of  love  between  man  and  man,  —  these  I 
think  are  by  far  the  most  important  speculative  doc- 
trines known  to  the  human  intellect. 

But  the  popular  theology  has  very  great  defects  as 
a  scheme  of  the  universe,  and  it  teaches  great  errors. 
Fifteen  or  sixteen  hundred  years  ago  Arnobius  and 
Augustine,  with  other  great  teachers  of  Christianity, 
pointed  out  the  follies  of  Heathenism  in  the  most 
bitter  polemics.  It  would  be  just  as  easy  and  just 
as  appropriate  in  bitter  sermons,  at  this  day,  to  point 
out  the  errors  of  the  popular  theology  of  the  churches. 
I  wish  with  no  bitterness  to  expose  the  error.  Bit- 
terness is  always  out  of  place  in  philosophy,  in  the- 
ology, in  philanthropy.  The  Heathens  before  Christ 
meant  to  be  right,  and  as  a  whole  did  the  best  they 
could;  and  so  the  Christians  after  Christ  have  meant 
to  be  right,  and  have  done  the  best  they  could  as  a 
whole.  Aristotle  and  Augustine  seem  to  me  equally 
honest,  and  equally  mistaken  in  many  matters.  In- 
dividuals have  purposely  gone  wrong,  but  ninety-nine 
out  of  a  hundred  of  the  men  who  have  taught  the- 
ology before  Jesus  or  after  him,  it  seems  to  me,  meant 
to  learn  the  truth  and  teach  the  truth.  Let  us  thank 
all  of  these  for  the  good  they  did,  and  let  us  do 
better  if  we  can ;  hoping  that  somebody,  by  and  by, 


100  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

will  come  and  do  better  than  we,  and  w^ill  efface  our 
errors,  seeing  truths  clearly  which  we  have  seen  but 
dimly,  and  seeing  truths  dimly  which  we  have  not 
seen  at  all. 

I  say  there  are  great  errors  in  the  popular  theology 
of  the  Christian  churches,  regarded  as  a  Theory  of 
the  Universe ;  great  errors  in  the  Idea  of  God ;  in 
the  Idea  of  Man,  and  next  in  the  Idea  of  the  Rela- 
tion between  the  two. 

I.  Look  at  the  Idea  of  God.  In  the  popular 
theology  God  is  represented  as  a  finite  and  imperfect 
God.  It  is  not  said  so  in  words ;  the  contrary  is 
often  said ;  nevertheless  it  is  so.  He  is  actually 
represented  as  imperfect  in  power,  imperfect  in  wis- 
dom, imperfect  in  justice,  in  love,  and  in  holiness. 
It  is  so  represented  in  facts,  or  alleged  facts, 
related  in  the  Bible,  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
both.  It  is  so  in  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  Prot- 
estant Church  ;  with  the  Unitarian  and  the  Trinita- 
rian, with  the  Partialist  and  the  Universalist. 

In  terms,  religious  writers  very  rarely  speak  of  God 
as  malignant,  but  they  continually  represent  Him  so 
in  act.  I  say  they  rarely  speak  of  God  as  malig- 
nant; now  and  then  a  writer  does.  Some  "  divines '* 
—  so  called  —  distinctly  declared  that  God  was  ma- 
lignant ;  and  not  long  ago,  in  a  sister  city  of  New 
England,  a  clergyman  preached  a  sermon  to  his  peo- 
ple with  this  title  :  "  On  the  Malevolence  of  God ;  " 


THE  rOPULAR  THEOLOGY.  101 

If  you  study  the  popular  theology  as  a  whole,  you 
will  find  that  it  regards  God  as  eminently  malignant, 
though  it  does  not  say  so  in  plain  words.  The  Tyrian 
idolaters,  I  think,  called  Baal  merciful  and  benefi- 
cent, even  when  they  thought  he  demanded  the  sacri- 
fice of  their  children. 

According  to  the  popular  theology  there  are  three 
acknowledged  persons  in  the  Godhead,  namely :  first, 
God  the  Father,  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  and  all 
that  is  therein ;  the  great  Being  of  the  world,  made 
to  appear  remarkable  for  three  things,  —  first  for  great 
power  to  will  and  do ;  second  for  great  selfishness ; 
and  third  for  great  destructiveness.  In  the  popular 
theology  God  the  Father  is  the  grimmest  object  in 
the  universe;  not  loving  and  not  lovely.  In  the 
New  Testament,  in  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark, 
and  Luke,  there  are  some  dreadful  qualities  ascribed 
to  God,  which  belonged  to  the  Hebrew  conception 
of  Jehovah :  but  a  great  many  exceeding  kind  and 
beautiful  qualities  are  also  assigned  to  Him  ;  —  wit- 
ness the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son ;  witness  many 
things  put  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus.  The  Book  of 
Revelation  attiibutes  to  the  Deity  dark  and  malig- 
nant conduct  which  it  is  dreadful  to  think  of.  But  the 
popular  theology  in  the  dreadful  qualities  assigned 
to  God  has  gone  a  great  ways  beyond  the  first  three 
Gospels,  and  the  book  of  Revelation.  It  has  taken 
the  dark  things  and  made  them  blacker  with  notions 
derived  from  other  sources. 

9* 


102  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

Then  there  is  God  the  Son,  who  is  the  Father  in 
the  flesh,  but  with  more  humanity  in  him,  and 
with  very  much  less  selfishness  and  destructiveness 
than  is  attributed  to  the  Father.  Still  in  the  popu- 
lar theology  the  love  which  the  Son  bears  towards 
man  is  always  limited :  first  limited  to  believers,  and 
next  to  the  elect.  It  is  no  doctrine  of  the  popular 
theology  that  Christ  actually  loves  transgressors,  and 
as  little  that  God  loves  them. 

Then,  thirdly,  there  is  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
least  important  person  in  the  Trinity,  who  continu- 
ally "  spreads  undivided  and  operates  unspent,"  but 
does  not  spread  far  or  operate  much,  and  is  easily 
grieved  away.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  not  represented 
as  loving  wicked  men,  that  is,  men  who  lack 
conventional  faith,  or  who  are  deficient  in  conven- 
tional righteousness.  No  one  of  these  three  persons 
of  the  Godhead  has  any  love  for  the  souls  of  the 
damned. 

All  this  is  acknowledged  and  writ  down  in  the 
creeds  of  Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  in  this  they 
do  not  differ.  A  few  heretical  Unitarians  have 
differed  from  the  main  church  on  the  arithmetic  of 
deity,  not  on  the  ethics  or  psychology  thereof. 

It  is  commonly  said  there  are  three  persons  in  the 
Deity.  There  is  really  a  fourth  person  in  the  popular 
idea  of  God,  in  the  Christian  theology,  to  wit,  the 
Devil ;  for  the  Devil  is  really  the  fourth  person  of 
the  popular  Godhead  in  the  Christian  churches,  only 


THE  rOrULAR  THEOLOGY.  103 

he  is  not  so  named  and  confessed.  The  belief  in 
the  devil  is  ahnost  universal  in  Christendom.  It  is 
a  New  Testament  doctrine,  and  an  Old  Testament 
doctrine.  Catholic  and  Protestant,  Trinitarian  and 
Unitarian,  Partialist  and  Universalist,  agree  in  this. 
No  Christian  sect  has  ever  denied  his  existence  ; 
they  cannot  whilst  they  believe  in  the  infallibility  of 
the  Scriptm*es.  Says  a  writer  of  undoubted  sound- 
ness, who  represents  the  popular  theology  of  the 
English  and  American  sects,  "  The  devil  is  the  im- 
placable enemy  of  the  human  race,  and  especially  of 
believers,  whom  he  desires  to  devour."  The  devil  is 
represented  as  absolutely  evil,  without  any  good  in 
him.  When  Origen,  sixteen  hundred  years  ago,  de- 
clared that  the  devil  would  be  saved  in  the  final 
redemption,  if  there  were  a  spark  of  goodness  in  him, 
he  was  declared  a  heretic  by  the  churches,  and  ail 
Christendom  rung  with  accusations  against  him, 
because  he  thought  the  devil  might  be  saved.  It 
was  a  heresy  in  Robert  Burns  when  he  said  he  was 
loath  to  think  of  the  pit  of  darkness  even  for  the 
devil's  sake,  and  wished  he  might  "  take  a  thought 
and  mend." 

Well,  now,  this  absplutely  evil  Devil,  if  there  were 
such  a  being,  must  have  come  from  God,  who  is  the 
only  Creator ;  and  of  course,  therefore,  is  as  much  a 
part  of  God's  work  and  design  as  the  Eternal  Son 
after  he  was  "eternally  begotten,"  or  the  Eternal 
Holy   Ghost  after  he  had  "  eternally  proceeded ; " 


104  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

and  the  existence  of  the  devil,  therefore,  is  as  much  a 
work  of  God  as  the  existence  of  the  Son  or  the 
Holy  Ghost;  and  all  the  evil  of  the  devil  must  have 
originated  with  God.  God,  therefore,  must  have 
made  the  devil  absolutely  evil,  because  He  wanted  to 
make  the  devil  absolutely  evil.  If  the  devil  were 
made  with  a  nature  which,  under  the  circumstances 
he  was  placed  in,  would  develop  into  a  nature  abso- 
lutely evil  —  all  of  that  must  be  so  because  God  the 
Father  wished  it  to  be  so.  The  devil  must  be  "  the 
implacable  enemy  of  the  human  race,"  with  this 
extraordinary  apjDctite  for  "  believers,"  because  God 
wished  him  to  be  so.  God  therefore  is  responsible 
for  the  devil;  and  the  character  of  absolute  evil, 
which  is  in  the  devil,  must  have  been  in  God  first. 

The  power  assigned  to  the  devil  and  the  influence 
over  men  commonly  attributed  to  him  is  much 
greater,  since  the  creation,  than  that  of  all  the  three 
other  Persons  put  together.  And  so  the  devil  is  really 
therefore  the  most  effective  person  of  the  popular 
Godhead,  only  not  so  confessed.  There  is  no  mis- 
take in  this  reasoning,  strange  as  it  may  seem.  It 
takes  all  these  four  Persons  to  make  up  and  repre- 
sent the  popular  theological  ncjtion  of  God. 

Then  God  as  a  whole  is  represented  as  angry  with 
mankind  as  a  whole.  There  is,  on  the  one  side,  an 
offended  God,  and  on  the  other  an  offending  human 
race.  God  the  Father  is  angry  with  mankind,  God 
the  Son,  and  God  the   Holy  Ghost  are  both  angry 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  10-J 

with  mankind,  and  the  devil,  "  the  implacable 
enemy  of  the  human  race,"  as  a  roaring  lion  walk- 
eth  about  seeking  whom  he  may  devour,  "  especially 
believers." 

But  there  are  a  few  whom  the  devil  will  not  be 
able  to  devour,  who  will  be  saved,  whom  the  Holy 
Ghost  will  inspire,  whom  the  Son  will  ransom  and 
the  Father  bless.  These  are  only  the  smallest  frac- 
tion of  mankind,  and  the  devil  gets  all  the  rest :  so 
that  really,  according  to  the  practical  teaching  of 
this  theology,  the  devil,  the  unacknowledged  person 
of  the  Godhead,  is,  after  all,  stronger  than  God  the 
Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  all 
united. 

To  speak  of  the  deity  as  a  Unit,  God  is  repre- 
sented as  not  working  by  law,  that  is,  by  a  constant 
mode  of  operation,  —  in  the  most  important  cases,  — 
but  by  miracle.  So  God  and  the  universe  are  not 
completely  at  one,  but  He  acts  in  it  by  miracle  ; 
that  is,  by  an  irregular  and  capricious  mode  of  ope- 
ration, reversing  its  laws;  for  example,  in  the  Flood, 
in  the  storms  and  earthquakes  of  the  material  world, 
in  the  creation  of  woman,  the  birth  of  Jesus,  the 
inspiration  of  the  prophets  and  apostles.  All  these 
are  theologically  represented  as  results  of  the  spas- 
modic action  of  God,  now  a  spasm  of  wrath,  then 
of  love.  This  theory  does  not  properly  belong  to 
that  idea  of  God — original  perhaps  with  the  He- 
brews—  which  makes   Him  independent  of  matter 


106  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

and  transcendent  over  it.  Much  better  does  it 
cohere  with  the  notion  of  the  classic  deists,  with 
whom  God  and  Matter  were  both  eternal  and  irre- 
concilable forces,  always  a  little  at  feud.  However 
the  absurd  theory  has  crept  in  to  the  Christian  theol- 
ogy, where  it  appears  yet  more  absurd  than  in  the 
schemes  of  Socrates  and  Aristippus. 

The  authors  of  the  popular  theology  had  no  con- 
ception of  a  uniformity  of  force,  no  conception  of  a 
universal  law,  whereby  the  Infinite  God  works  in 
the  world  of  matter  and  of  spirit  —  in  short,  no  con- 
ception of  the  Infinite  God.  So  theologians  make 
two  forms  of  operations  in  the  universe.  One  is  the 
"work  of  Nature,"  by  means  of  law  —  a  constant 
mode  of  the  operation  of  a  constant  force ;  the  other  is 
the  "  work  of  Grace,"  by  means  of  miracles  —  incon- 
stant modes  of  the  operation  of  an  inconstant  force. 
Wheat  gi'ows  out  of  the  gi'ound  by  the  laws  of  Na- 
ture, and  is  not  thought,  in  theology,  eminently  to 
show  the  goodness  of  God ;  but  when  Jesus  is  said 
to  have  made  five  loaves  feed  five  thousand  men, 
besides  women  and  children,  and  leave  twelve  bas- 
kets of  broken  bread,  that  is  thought  a  miracle, 
to  reveal  the  immense  power  of  God,  and  to  show 
much  more  of  his  goodness  than  the  wheat  growing 
from  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  century  out  and  cen- 
tury in,  and  furnishing  food  for  the  whole  human 
race.  Newton  writes  the  Principia  of  the  universe; 
he  wnrites  by  the  "  light  of  Nature "  and  describes 


•THE   POrULAll   THEOLOGY.  107 

only  the  "  work  of  Nature,"  and  it  is  considered, 
theologically,  a  small  thing.  St.  Jude  writes  an 
epistle  of  twenty-five  verses  and  it  is  claimed  that  he 
wrote  by  the  "light  of  miraculous  inspiration;" 
his  book  is  a  "work  of  Grace;"  a  miracle; 
and  the  production  of  Jude  is  thought  to  be 
incomparably  greater  than  the  Principia  of  Newton, 
with  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of  La  Place  thrown  in. 
"  Newton  and  La  Place,"  says  this  theology,  "  write 
by  the  carnal  reason,  and  their  works  are  "fallible  ; 
while  Jude  wrote  by  miraculous  inspiration,  and  his 
wa'itings  are  infallible." 

The  doctrine  concerning  Man  is  no  better.  Man 
is  represented  after  this  wise  :  He  was  so  made  by 
God  and  furnished  with  such  surroundings  that  as 
soon  as  he  tried  to  go  alone  he  fell  from  a  state  of 
innocence  into  a  state  of  sin,  and  has  transmitted 
"  original  sin "  to  all  his  posterity.  Men  are  born 
with  a  sinful  nature,  and  if  not  "  totally  depraved  " 
they  are  so  nearly  so  that  the  fraction  of  goodness 
is  infinitesimal  and  not  worth  estimating.  Sin  does 
not  consist  in  sinning,  but  in  being  born  of  Adam 
after  the  fall,  for  his  offence  wrought  an  attainder  in 
the  soul  of  all  his  children,  forever.  Man  of  himself, 
it  is  said,  has  no  power  to  find  out  moral  or  religious 
truth,  and  to  secure  his  own  religious  or  moral  welfare. 
He  is  naturally  wicked  and  hates  God,  hates  other 
men,  hates  truth   with   his  reason,  justice  with  his 


108  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

conscience,  love  with  his  affections,  holiness  with  his 
soul ;  loves  falsehood,  injustice,  hate,  and  wickedness, 
all  for  their  own  sake,  not  as  means  to  an  end ;  — 
hates  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  only  loves  the  Devil.  In  his  flesh 
there  dwells  no  good  thing.  The  natural  desires 
are  sinful,  and  men  are  wicked  by  nature  and  by 
will.  There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  not  one.  Men 
are  evil,  and  evil  continually ;  their  heart  is  as  prone 
to  wickedness  as  the  sparks  to  fly  upward ;  they  are 
conceived  in  sin  and  shapen  in  iniquity.  If  they  do 
something  that  seems  good  their  righteousness  is  as 
filthy  rags. 

All  things  which  God  made  work  well  except 
human  nature ;  and  that  worked  so  badly  that  it  fell 
as  soon  as  it  was  put  together.  God  must  start 
anew,  and  so  he  destroys  all,  except  eight  persons. 
But  —  so  bad  is  human  nature  —  the  new  family 
behave  no  better ;  they  must  be  cast  aside ;  and 
God  discards  all  excepting  the  posterity  of  a  single 
man.  But  they  turn  out  as  bad  as  the  rest,  and 
must  be  thrown  over.  No  good  comes  of  human 
reason,  and  human  nature  ;  so  at  length  a  new  dis- 
pensation is  established.  But  the  new  dispensation 
has  worked  scarcely  better  than  the  others.  The 
human  race  does  not  turn  out  as  God  designed,  or 
expected.     It  is  a  failure. 

This  is  taught  in  every  great  scheme  of  theology, 
Protestant  or  Catholic. 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  109 

Note  next  the  doctrine  of  the  Relation  between 
God  and  Man.  God  is  the  sovereign  lord,  the  king 
of  the  human  race,  and  is  represented  as  creating 
and  ruling  the  world  not  for  the  world's  good,  but 
for  his  own  good  or  glory.  Jesus  calls  God  "  the 
Father,"  —  the  favorite  name  with  that  great  noble 
heart,  —  and  does  not  call  Him  King.  In  the  third 
Gospel  God  is  the  Father  who  sees  his  penitent  prod- 
igal son  a  gi'eat  way  off,  and  goes  out  to  meet  him, 
and  falls  on  his  neck  and  kisses  him,  and  rejoices 
more  over  one  sinner  brought  to  repentance  than 
over  ninety  and  nine  just  men.  The  author  of  the 
Epistle  ascribed  to  John,  says  —  "  God  is  Love."  It 
is  the  bravest  word  in  the  whole  Bible.  But  by  the 
popular  theology  God  is  King;  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants represent  Him  as  a  despotic  king.  There  are 
three  elements,  as  I  just  said,  conspicuous  in  his 
character.  The  first  is  Power,  —  force  of  hand, 
force  of  head;  next.  Selfishness,  —  love  of  his  own 
glory ;  and  third,  Destructiveness.  Like  other  kings 
He  cares  little  for  the  welfare  of  his  creatures,  though 
He  pretends  to  care  much.  Men  must  fear  this  king  ; 
this  is  the  highest  thing  you  can  do.  You  must 
pray  to  God  only  by  attorney.  Your  prayer  wiU 
make  Him  alter  his  mind  and  change  his  purpose,  if 
you  employ  the  right  attorney  in  the  right  way ;  for 
though  this  king  is  said  to  be  unchangeable,  it  is 
thought  He  will  be  moved  by  the  poor  petitions  you 
and  I  put  up.  Divines  talk  of  "constraining 
10 


no  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

prayer,"  —  a  prayer  that  will  constrain  God  to  alter 
his  will!  The  classic  mythology  represents  the 
ancient  Heathen  gods  as  selfish  in  their  ruling  pro- 
pensity ;  and  the  popular  theology  represents  God 
as  selfish  in  his  love  of  power,  of  glory,  and  terribly 
selfish  in  his  wrath.  Accordingly,  such  actions  are 
ascribed  to  the  Deity,  in  the  popular  theology,  as  in 
almost  any  country  of  Christendom  would  send  a 
man  to  the  gallows.  The  God  of  the  popular  theol- 
ogy is  the  exploiterer  of  the  human  race. 

In  this  theology  God  is  represented  as  having 
made  and  finished  a  miraculous  communication  of 
his  will  to  a  small  portion  of  mankind,  —  the  Jews 
and  Christians :  that  is  the  "  law  of  God "  written 
in  the  Bible ;  the  Old  Testament  is  his  first  word, 
and  the  New  Testament  is  his  last  word.  But  in 
fact  the  two  are  in  many  fundamental  teachings 
exactly  opposite ;  yet  men  are  told  to  believe  them 
exactly  alike.  A  man  must  believe  every  word  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  keep  every  com- 
mand there.  Does  reason  stand  in  the  way?  — 
"  down  with  reason !  "  does  his  conscience,  his  affec- 
tion, or  his  soul  stand  in  the  way  ?  — ■ "  down  with 
them  all ! "  cries  the  Popular  Theology,  "  down  with 
human  nature !  "  The  universe  is  not  thouofht  to  be 
the  word  of  God  at  all,  that  is  "  Nature  ; "  and  here 
again  the  old  heathen  notion  of  a  discord  betwixt 
God  and  the  world  comes  up  anew.  The  laws  \\Tit- 
t'en  in  this  marvellous  body;  the  laws  of   the  un- 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.         •  111 

derstanding,  the  conscience,  the  affections,  the  soul 
—  they  are  not  thought  to  be  the  word  of  God; 
they  are  not  imperative,  ultimately  binding  on  men. 
We  are  to  obey  only  an  arbitrary  and  capricious 
command. 

But  man  has  not  kept  this  command.  Men  could 
not  keep  it ;  God  knew  they  could  not  and  would 
not  keep  it  when  He  made  them.  Of  course  He 
wished  to  make  such  a  law  and  such  men  as  are 
thus  unfit  for  one  another  —  Nature  unlawful,  and 
law  unnatural.  And  when  men  do  not  keep  the  law 
that  He  told  them  to  keep,  and  which  He  had  made  it 
impossible  for  them  to  keep,  straightway  He  is  angry 
with  them,  and  hates  them,  and  will  destroy  them  in 
wrath.  So  He  makes  the  earth  bring  forth  thorns 
and  thistles  for  the  first  offenders,  and  provides  eternal 
torments  for  the  erring  sons  of  men. 

This  theology  declares,  Every  sin  is  an  infinite  evil, 
because  it  is  a  violation  of  the  absolute  command  of 
God.  In  a  moment  of  time  you  can  commit  an 
infinite  sin,  and  if  you  have  once  transgressed  any 
commandment  of  God,  even  in  the  smallest  particu- 
lar, you  are  guilty  of  violating  the  whole  law  of 
God,  and  are  under  the  infinite  wrath  of  God ;  and 
all  you  can  do,  all  you  can  suffer,  will  not  reconcile 
God  to  you :  He  hates  you  with  all  his  power,  all 
his  selfishness,  all  his  destructiveness.  But  if  you 
do  not  commit  any  of  these  sins,  at  least  you  are 
born  of  the  first  sinner  —  and  got  as  much  hurt  by 


112  •         THE  POPULAH   THEOLOGY. 

the  fall  as  he.  But,  the  theology  continues,  an  atone- 
ment has  been  made,  a  sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the 
world.  God  the  Father  eternally  begot  God  the 
Son,  and  sent  him  into  the  world,  going  voluntarily, 
and  had  him  crucified  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the 
world.  Thus  God  the  Father  is  appeased  by  the 
sacrifice  of  God  the  Son,  who  has  made  atonement 
for  men  and  taken  all  the  sins  of  men  upon  himself, 
and  so  pacified  the  infinite  wrath  of  God  the  Father. 

But  he  did  this  only  for  such  as  would  comply 
with  certain  doctrinal  and  liturgical  conditions: 
that  is,  they  must  believe  certain  doctrines  which  are 
repugnant  to  the  whole  nature  of  a  good  and  culti- 
vated man  ;  repugnant  to  his  reason,  his  conscience, 
his  affections,  and  his  soul.  Then  they  must  do 
certain  sacramental  deeds,  deeds  which  have  nothing 
to  do  with  practical  life ;  nothing  to  do  with  natural 
piety  and  natural  morality.  The  belief  of  these 
doctrines  and  the  doing  of  these  deeds  is  called 
Christianity,  or  religion.  It  is  represented  as  wholly 
unnatural  and  all  the  more  valuable  for  that  reason, 
for  the  natural  heart  is  at  enmity  with  God.  Thus 
some  men  are  to  be  "  saved ;  "  such  as  comply  enjoy 
eternal  happiness,  the  rest  "  perish  everlastingly." 

The  theoretic  and  principal  design  of  this  theol- 
ogy is  not  to  make  men  better  men,  —  better  fathers, 
husbands,  brothers,  sons;  better  mechanics,  mer- 
chants, farmers,  —  only  to  get  them  "  saved ; "  that  is, 
to   insure   them   a   good    time   in  the   next  world. 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  113 

Morality  and  its  consequent  welfare  on  earth  is  only 
incidental  to  the  end  of  religion.  So  religion  is  sel- 
fish —  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  for  salvation's  sake. 
But  very  few  come  to  that  salvation ;  it  is  only  a 
few  that  are  saved,  —  look  at  the  list  of  mankind,  — 
only  the  Christians  and  a  few  of  the  eminent  He- 
brews before  Christ,  no  Hebrew  since ;  and  of  the 
Christians,  only  the  Elect  in  the  Protestant  Church, 
and  in  the  Catholic  Church  only  such  as  die  in  its 
communion.  Well,  to  speak  approximately,  in 
round  numbers,  at  this  day  there  are  a  thousand 
million  men  on  the  earth.  Two  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  are  "  nominal  Christians."  To  take  the  Prot- 
estant view,  —  of  these  nominal  Christians  perhaps 
one  in  forty  is  what  might  be  called  a  real  Christian ; 
that  is  an  ecclesiastical  Christian,  or  actual  member 
of  a  church  with  the  doctrinal  and  liturgical  qualifi- 
cations just  referred  to.  That  gives  us  six  and  a 
quarter  millions  of  real  ecclesiastical  Christians. 
According  to  the  theology  of  the  prevailing  Protes- 
tant sects,  none  can  be  saved  unless  he  is  of  that 
company.  But  this  number  must  be  winnowed 
down  still  further ;  for  only  the  Elect  are  to  be 
saved.  What  is  the  ratio  of  the  elect  Christians  to 
the  non-elect  ?  I  do  not  find  it  put  down  in  the 
theological  arithmetic,  and  have  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining. But  all  the  rest  are  to  be  damned  to  ever- 
lasting woe  ;  that  is,  all  men  now  living  who  are 
not  Christians,  —  namely,  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
10* 


114  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

millions  ;  and  of  the  nominal  Christians  ninety-seven 
and  a  half  per  cent.,  or  two  hundred  and  forty- 
three  millions  and  a  quarter  more ;  and  of  the  real 
Christians  I  know  not  how  many ;  and  of  men  long 
ago  deceased,  all  the  non-elect  of  the  real  Christians, 
all  the  merely  nominal  Christians,  and  all  who  are 
not  nominal  Christians  ;  —  so  that  not  more  than  one 
out  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  could  ever  taste  of 
Heaven. 

The  Catholic  doctrine  on  this  point  condemns  all 
w^ho  are  out  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  distinc- 
tion sometimes  made  by  tender-hearted  and  pious 
Catholics,  between  the  Body  of  the  Church  which 
is  visible,  and  the  Soul  of  the  Church  which  is  invisi- 
ble, is  only  an  individual  departure  from  the  doc- 
trinal tradition  of  the  Church  itself. 

The  first  Gospel  represents  the  way  to  Heaven  as 
narrow  and  strait,  and  found  by  few;  and  the 
other,  the  way  to  Hell,  is  represented  as  broad  and 
abundantly  travelled.  Says  the  Methodist  hymn, 
which  incarnates  in  a  single  verse  the  teaching  of 
the  popular  theology, 

"  Broad  is  the  road  that  leads  to  Death, 
And  thousands  walk  together  there  ; 
But  Wisdom  shows  a  naiTOW  path, 
With  here  and  there  a  traveller." 

Those  that  are  saved  are  not  saved  by  their  char- 
acter ;  virtue  has  no  virtue  to  save  your  soul.     Tell 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  115 

the  Catholic  priest  you  expect  Heaven  for  your  good 
works,  and  your  faithfuhiess  to  yourself,  —  he  assures 
you  that  you  are  in  the  bond  of  iniquity.  Tell  the 
Protestant  priest  the  same  thing,  he  is  certain  you 
are  in  the  broad  way  to  destruction.  You  must  be 
saved  only  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ  as  the  divine 
cause  ;  and  by  belief  in  this  theology,  as  the  human 
condition.  Piety  and  Morality,  "  natural  religion,"  is 
no  condition  of  salvation  ;  good  works  are  bad  things 
for  that.  The  elect  are  no  better  than  other  men ; 
they  are  saved  by  virtue  of  the  will  of  God,  who  has 
mercy  on  whom  He  will  have  mercy,  and  rejects 
whom  He  will,  and  takes  his  elect  to  heaven  by  a 
short  path  through  "  grace,"  not  over  the  long  dull 
road  of  "  works."  It  is  supposed  that  man  has  no 
right  towards  God,  and  that  God's  mode  of  opera- 
tion is  infinite  caprice.  Laws  of  nature  are  no  final- 
ity with  their  Maker ! 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  represented  as  going  about, 
seeking  to  inspire  men  with  the  will  to  be  saved. 
He  does  not  come  into  assemblies  of  men  of  science, 
who  are  seeking  to  learn  the  laws  of  God.  It  would 
be  deemed  impious  to  speak  of  the  Holy  Ghost  as 
attending  the  meetings  of  the  French  Institute,  or 
the  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in  Boston.  He 
does  not  come  into  assemblies  of  men  trying  to 
make  the  world  better  off,  and  men  better.  It  would 
be  deemed  blasphemy  to  speak  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
as  attending  a  meeting  for  the  prevention  of  pauper- 


116  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

ism  or  crime ;  a  peace  meeting,  a  temperance  meet- 
ing, a  meeting  against  capital  punishment,  an  anti- 
slavery  convention,  or  a  Woman's  Rights'  meeting. 
What  would  the  clergymen  say  if  somebody  should 
say  of  the  Convention  that  met  at  Syracuse,  day 
before  yesterday,  to  commemorate  the  rescue  of  a 
fugitive  slave  out  of  the  hands  of  the  kidnappers, 
that  "  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  it  ?  "  Why, 
that  would  be  thought  a  greater  atrocity  than  even  I 
have  ever  committed  yet.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  not 
represented  as  inspiring  philosophers  like  Leibnitz, 
Newton,  and  Kant,  or  philanthropists  like  the 
reformers  of  old  or  modern  times.  He  attends 
camp-meetings,  is  present  at  "  Revivals,"  frequents 
tract  societies,  and  the  like.  You  never  saw  a 
picture  of  the  Holy  Ghost  coming  down  upon  a 
chemist  inventing  ether,  on  Columbus  thinking  Amer- 
ica into  life,  or  on  Faustus  making  a  printing-press  — 
it  is  the  Devil  that  is  said  to  have  inspired  him,  and 
by  no  means  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Holy  Ghost  is 
not  represented  as  descending  on  Franklin,  flying  a 
kite  into  a  thundercloud  and  taking  out  the  light- 
ning with  a  string,  founding  academies,  and  hospi- 
tals, and  libraries  ;  but  he  ,comes  down  upon  monks, 
and  nuns,  and  ascetics,  praying  with  their  lips ;  not 
on  common  laborious  men  and  women  praying  with 
their  hands.  It  would  be  thought  impious  to  paint 
the  "  gentle  spnit "  coming  down  on  a  New  Eng- 
land school-house,  where  an  intelligent  young  woman 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  117 

was  teaching  children  the  way  they  should  go;  or 
to  paint  the  "  Heavenly  Dove  "  fluttering  over  the 
head  of  John  Pounds,  the  British  shoemaker,  sitting 
in  his  narrow  shop  amid  paste-horns  and  swine's 
bristles,  and  bits  of  leather, 

"  His  Lipstone  over  his  knee, 
Drawiug-  his  quarters  and  sole  together," 

\yhilst  teaching  the  little  boys  and  girls  to  read  and 
write  after  he  had  picked  them  out  of  the  streets. 
The  Holy  Ghost  of  theology  has  nothing  to  do  with 
such  things  at  all ;  nothing  to  do  with  schemes  for 
making  the  world  better,  or  men  better. 

Then  it  is  represented  that  God  once  inspired 
men,  Hebrews  and  Christians.  Now  He  inspires  no 
man  as  of  old ;  he  only  sends  you  to  a  book  and  the 
meeting-house.  It  is  thought  God  inspires  nobody 
now.  He  has  spoken  his  last  word,  and  made  his 
last  will  and  testament.  There  can  be  no  progress 
in  Christianity,  none  out  of  it.  We  have  got  all  the 
religious  truth  God  will  ever  give  us.  The  fount  of 
inspiration  is  clean  dried  up,  and  God  is  so  far  off 
that  the  human  soul  may  wander  all  its  mortal  life 
and  never  come  near.  All  it  gets  must  be  at  second 
hand. 


Such,  my  friends,  is  the  popular  theology  as  a 
Theory  of  the  Universe.    This  is  the  theology  which 


118  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

lies  at  the  basis  of  all  the  prevailing  sects.  I  have 
taken  pains  not  to  quote  the  language  of  particular 
sects  or  particular  persons.  Let  no  one  be  answer- 
able for  the  common  vice.  The  Universalists  have 
departed  widely  from  this  theology  in  the  doctrine 
of  damnation ;  the  Unitarians  have  departed  less 
widely  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Unity  of  God.  But 
with  the  mass  of  theologians  God  is  still  represented 
as  finite  and  malignant ;  man  the  veriest  wretch  in 
creation,  with  a  depraved  nature ;  the  relation  be- 
tween him  and  God  is  represented  as  a  selfish  rule 
on  God's  part,  and  a  slavish  fear  on  man's  part;  — 
one  man  saved  out  of  a  hundred  thousand,  and 
ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
damned  to  eternal  ruin.  God  exploiters  the  human 
race.  Man  is  a  worm,  and  God  is  represented  as  a 
mighty  heel  to  crush  him  down  to  hell,  not  to  death 
but  to  writhings  without  end.  This  being  so,  see 
how  the  world  looks  from  this  theological  point  of 
view. 

God  is  not  represented  as  a  friend,  but  the  worst 
foe  to  man ;  existence  is  a  curse  to  all  but  one  out 
of  a  hundred  thousand ;  immortality  is  a  curse  to 
ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
out  of  every  hundred  thousand  on  earth ;  religion  a 
blessing  to  only  ten  in  a  million,  to  all  the  rest  a 
torment  on  earth ;  and  in  hell,  the  bitterest  part  of 
the  bitter  fire  which  burns  everlastingly  the  immor- 
tal flesh  and  quivering  soal. 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  119 

Is  this  popular  theology  a  satisfactory  Theory  of 
the  Universe  ?  Does  it  correspond  to  the  facts  of 
material  nature,  under  all  men's  eyes ;  the  facts  of 
human  history,  the  facts  of  daily  observation  ?  Does 
this  idea  of  God,  of  man  and  of  their  connection  — 
of  God's  providence  and  man's  destination  —  does 
this  agree  with  the  natural  sentiments  of  reverence 
and  trust  which  spring  unbidden  in  the  living  heart ; 
with  the  spontaneous  intuitions  of  the  True,  the 
Beautiful,  the  Good,  the  Holy ;  with  the  results  of 
the  highest  reflective  consciousness  ?  No,  it  is  a  the- 
ory which  does  not  correspond  with  facts  of  material 
nature  and  human  history,  facts  of  daily  observation  ; 
it  does  not  agree  with  natural  sentiments,  spontane- 
ous intuitions,  or  with  voluntary  reflection !  It  is  a 
theory  without  facts,  without  reason,  a  theory  whose 
facts  are  fancies,  and  its  reason  Caprice.  It  swings 
in  the  air  at  both  ends.  So  it  bids  us  ignore  the 
facts  of  the  outer  universe  and  deny  the  powers  of 
the  inner  world  ;  then  where  it  has  made  a  solitude 
it  proclaims  a  peace,  and  calls  it  the  Peace  of  God. 

The  other  Sunday  I  spoke  of  Speculative  Atheism 
as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe.  I  hope  I  did  no  injus- 
tice to  atheism,  or  the  atheist.  But  which  is  the 
worst,  to  believe  that  there  is  no  God  who  is  Mind, 
Cause,  and  Providence  of  this  universe,  that  all  comes 
by  a  fortuitous  concurrence  of  atoms,  the  world  a 
chance-shot ;  or  to  believe  there  is  a  God  who  is  Almigh- 


120  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

ty,  yet  omnipotently  malignant,  who  consciously  aims 
the  forces  of  the  universe  at  the  wretched  head  of 
his  own  child  ?  Which  is  the  worst,  to  believe  that 
I  die  wholly,  absolutely,  irrecoverably,  and  go  down 
to  be  a  brother  to  the  worm  of  the  dust,  or  to  believe 
that  I  go  to  curl  and  stretch  and  writhe  in  tortures 
forever  and  ever  ?  Which  is  the  hardest,  to  believe 
that  your  only  child,  which  fades  out  of  your  arms 
before  the  rosebud  is  fully  blown,  is  no  more  in  all 
the  earth,  in  all  the  sky,  in  all  the  universe,  or  that 
she  goes  to  torment  unspeakable,  unmitigable,  which 
can  have  no  end  when  the  universe  of  worlds  shall 
have  passed  away,  leaving  no  wrinkle  on  the  sky 
that  has  also  grown  old  and  passed  out  of  being  ? 
Which,  I  ask,  is  the  worst,  to  believe  that  there  is  no 
ear  to  hear  Abel's  blood  crying  against  Cain,  or  to 
believe  that  there  is  an  ear  which  hears  it.  One  who 
will  damn  Cain  and  millions  on  millions  of  men, 
guilty  of  no  sin  but  birth  —  the  act  of  God ;  —  will 
damn  all  these  forever  and  forever,  and  then  will 
look  down  with  the  Eye  which  never  slumbers  nor 
sleeps,  and  see  the  innumerable  millions  of  men, 
women,  and  babes,  all  lie  there  a  mass  quivering 
with  torment,  which  He  had  inflicted  of  his  own  free 
will,  and  made  them  for  the  sake  of  inflicting  it, 
while  Himself  feels  not  a  twinge  of  pity,  nor  lets 
fall  a  single  tear-drop  of  love,  but  rolls  all  the  universe 
of  hell  as  a  sweet  morsel  under  his  tongue  I  Which, 
I    say,  is  the  worst  —  to  declare  with   the  atheist 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  121 

"  There  is  no  God,  all  possible  ideas  thereof  lack 
actuality,"  or  to  paint  the  Cause,  the  Mind,  and 
Providence  of  all  this  world  as  a  hideous  Devil  — 
and  the  universe  itself  an  odious  and  inexorable 
hell  ? 

Yet  the  atheist,  I  suppose,  has  been  faithful  to  him- 
self; and  the  men  who  have  taught  these  horrid 
and  odious  doctrines,  I  cannot  say  they  have  not 
been  faithful.  But  I  must  say  that  as  I  hate  atheism, 
so  I  hate  this  other  doctrine,  w^hich  represents  religion 
as  a  torment,  immortality  a  curse,  and  God  a  fiend. 

Atheism,  as  I  said  the  other  Sunday,  sits  down 
on  the  shore  of  Time,  and  sees  the  stream  of  Hu- 
manity pass  by.  All  the  civilizations  which  have 
enfolded  so  many  millions  of  men  in  their  arms,  seem 
but  frail  and  brittle  bubbles,  passing  into  nought, 
—  vktues  unrequited,  tears  not  wiped  away,  suffer- 
ings unrecompensed,  and  man  without  hope. 

Look  again.  The  popular  Theology  sits  down  on 
the  same  spot  by  the  shore  of  Time,  and  the  great 
river  of  Human  History  sweeps  by,  fed  by  a  thou- 
sand different  streams,  all  mingling  their  murmurs 
into  one  great  oceanic  harmony  of  sounds,  as  it  rolls 
on  through  Time,  passing  to  Eternity.  I  go  up  be- 
fore Theology  and  ask,  "  what  is  this  ?  "  "  It  is  the 
stream  of  Human  History."  "  Whence  does  it 
come  ?  "  "  It  flows  from  God."  "  Where  is  He  ?  " 
"  There  is  God !  Clouds  and  thick  darkness  are 
about  Him.  He  is  a  consuming  fire,  a  jealous  God, 
11 


122  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

and  the  breath  of  his  nostrils  and  the  wrath  of  his 
heart  are  poured  out  against  mankind.  In  His  hand 
is  a  two-edged  sword,  and  out  from  His  mouth  there 
goes  forth  fire  to  wither  and  destroy."  "  Where 
does  this  stream  end  ?  "  ask  I.  "  Look !  "  is  the  an- 
swer ;  "  there  is  the  mouth  and  terminus  of  this 
great  stream."  On  the  right  Theology  points  to 
Jesus,  standing  there  with  benignant  face,  —  not  all 
benignant,  but  malignant  also ;  Theology  paints  the 
friend  of  publicans  and  sinners  with  malicious  pen- 
cil, —  making  to  the  right  a  little,  thin,  narrow  outlet, 
which  is  to  admit  a  mere  scantling  of  the  water  into  a 
shallow  pool,  where  it  shall  gleam  forever.  But  on  the 
other  hand  a  whole  Amazon  pours  its  mighty  flood 
down  to  perdition,  into  the  bottomless  pit,  where 
Hell  is  moved  to  meet  it  at  its  coming,  and  a  mighty 
devil  —  the  vulture  of  God's  wrath,  tormentor  and 
tormented,  —  sailing  on  horrid  vans,  hovers  over  the 
whole.  And  there  is  the  end.  No,  —  not  the  end, 
there  is  the  beginning  of  the  eternal  torments  of  the 
vast  mass  of  the  human  family  —  acquaintance  and 
friend,  kith  and  kin,  lover  and  maid,  husband  and 
wife,  parent  and  child. 

Which  —  Atheism  or  Theology  —  gives  us  the  fair- 
est picture  ?  Atheism,  even  annihilation  of  the  soul, 
would  be  a  relief  from  such  a  Deity  as  that ;  from 
such  an  end. 

I  said  the  other  day  there  were  atheists  in  Amer- 
ica seeking  to  spread  their  notions.     But  for  one 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  123 

who  denies  God  there  are  a  hundred  ministers  who 
preach  this  other  doctrine  of  a  jealous  and  an  angry 
God ;  a  God,  the  exploiterer  of  the  race,  who  will 
drive  down  the  majority  of  men  to  perdition.  The 
few  atheists  will  do  harm  with  their  theory  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  but  not  a  hundredth  part  of  the  harm  which 
must  be  done  by  this  view  of  God,  and  man,  and 
the  relation  between  the  two.  Atheism  is  taught  in 
the  name  of  philosophy,  in  the  name, of  man;  this 
theology  is  taught  in  the  name  of  religion,  in  the 
name  of  God.  I  said  I  should  throw  no  stones  at 
atheists  ;  that  I  felt  pity  for  them.  I  shall  throw 
none  at  theologians,  who  teach  that  religion  is  a  tor- 
ment, immortality  a  curse,  and  God  a  devil.  I  pity 
them  ;  they  did  not  mean  to  go  astray.  Mankind  is 
honest.  Most  of  the  men  who  teach  the  dreadful 
doctrines  of  atheism,  and  of  the  popular  theology,  are 
alike  honest.  Lucretius  and  Augustine,  d'Holbach 
and  Calvin,  I  think,  were  all  sincere  men,  and  honest 
men  —  and  perhaps  equally  went  astray. 

Do  men  really  believe  these  doctrines  which  they 
teach  ?  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  "  There  is 
no  God  I "  and  I  can  believe  the  fool  thinks  so  when 
he  says  it.  Yes,  if  the  fool  should  say  what  the 
theologian  has  said,  — "  God  is  a  devil,  man  is  a 
worm,  hell  is  his  everlasting  home ;  immortality 
tjie  greatest  curse  to  all  but  ten  men  in  a  million," 
I  should  believe  the  fool  thought  it.     But  does  any 


124  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

sober  man  really  believe  all  this  of  God,  and  man, 
and  the  relation  between  them  ?  He  may  say  so, 
but  I  see  not  how  any  man  can  really  believe  it, 
and  have  "  a  realizing  sense  "  of  this  theology,  and 
still  live.  Even  the  men  who  wrote  this  odious  doc- 
trine, —  the  Basils  and  Gregories  and  Augustines  of 
old  time,  the  Edwardses  and  Hopkinses  of  the  last 
generation,  and  the  Emmonses  of  this  day,  —  they 
did  not  believe  it,  they  could  not  believe  it.  The 
atheist  thinks  that  he  thinks  there  is  no  God,  and  the- 
ologians think  that  they  think  religion  is  a  torment, 
immortality  a  curse,  and  God  a  devil.  But,  God  be 
thanked.  Nature  cries  out  against  this  odious  doc- 
trine, that  man  is  a  worm,  that  religion  is  a  torment, 
immortality  a  curse,  and  God  a  fiend. 


From  behind  this  dark  and  thundering  cloud  of  the 
popular  theology,  how  beautifully  comes  forth  the 
calm,  clear  light  of  natural  human  religion,  revealing  to 
God  as  the  Infinite  Father,  as  the  Infinite  Mother  of  all, 
perfectly  powerful,  perfectly  wise,  perfectly  just  and 
loving,  and  perfectly  holy  too !  Then  how  beauti- 
ful is  the  Universe !  It  is  the  great  Bible  of  God ;  — 
Material  Nature  is  the  Old  Testament,  njillions  of 
years  old,  spangled  with  truths  under  our  feet,  spark- 
ling with  glories  over  our  head ;  and  Human  Nature, 
is  the  New  Testament  from  the  Infinite  God,  every 


TIIE   rOPULAR   THEOLOGY.  125 

day  revealing  a  new  page  as  Time  turns  over  the 
leaf.  Immortality  stands  waiting  to  give  a  recompense 
for  every  virtue  not  rewarded,  for  every  tear  not 
wiped  away,  for  every  sorrow  unrecompensed,  for 
every  prayer,  for  each  pure  intention  of  the  heart.  And 
over  the  whole,  —  Old  Testament  and  New  Testa- 
ment, Mortality  and  Immortality,  —  the  Infinite 
Loving- Kindness  of  God  the  Father,  comes  brooding 
down  as  a  bird  over  her  nest,  aye,  taking  us  to  His 
own  infinite  arms  and  blessing  us  with  Himself. 

Look  up  at  the  stars,  study  tbe  mathematics  of 
the  heavens  writ  in  those  gorgeous  diagrams  of  fire, 
where  all  is  law,  order,  harmony,  beauty  without 
end;  look  down  on  the  ant-hill  in  the  fields  some 
morn  in  early  summer,  and  study  the  ethics  of  the 
emmets,  all  law,  order,  harmony,  beauty  without 
end ;  look  round  on  the  cattle,  on  the  birds,  on  the 
cold  fishes  in  the  stream,  the  reptiles,  insects,  and 
see  the  mathematics  of  their  structure,  and  the 
ethics  of  their  lives ;  do  you  find  any  sign  that  the 
First  Person  of  the  Godhead  is  malignant  and  ca- 
pricious, and  the  Fourth  Person  thereof  is  a  devil ; 
that  hate  preponderates  in  the  world  ?  Look  back 
over  the  whole  course  of  human  history ;  you  see  war 
and  violence  it  is  'true,  but  the  higher  powers  of  man 
gaining  continually  on  the  animal  appetites  at  every 
step,  the  race  getting  fairer,  wiser,  juster,  more  affec- 
tionate, more  faithful  unto  justice,  love,  and  all  their 
11* 


126  THE  POPULAK  THEOLOaY. 

laws ;  look  in  you,  and  study  the  instinctive  emo- 
tions of  your  own  nature,  and  in  some  high  hour  of 
self-excitement  when  you  are  most  yourself,  ask  if 
there  can  be  such  a  homd  God  as  the  popular  the- 
ology so  blackly  paints,  making  his  human  world 
from  such  a  selfish  motive,  of  such  a  base  material, 
and  for  such  a  purpose  —  to  rot  its  fiery  immor- 
tality in  hell  ? 

Is  this  dreadful  theology  to  continue  ?  The  days  of 
its  foul  doctrines  are  numbered.  The  natural  in- 
stincts of  man  are  against  it ;  the  facts  of  history  are 
against  it ;  every  advance  of  science  makes  this  theol- 
ogy appear  the  more  ghastly  and  odious.  It  is  in  a 
process  of  dissolution  and  must  die.  The  popular 
theology, 

"  Mouldering  with  the  dull  earth's  mouldering  sod, 

luwrapt  tenfold  in  slothful  shame, 
Lies  there  exiled  from  eternal  God, 

Lost  to  her  place  and  name  ; 
And  death  and  life  she  hateth  equally, 

And  nothing  sees  for  her  despau', 
But  dreadful  Time,  dreadful  Eternity. 

Ko  comfort  anysvhere ; 
Eemaining  utterly  confused  with  fears, 

And  ever  worse  with  growing  time. 
And  everx unrelieved  by  dismal  tears, 

And  all  alone  in  crime 
Shut  up  as  in  a  crumbling  tomb,  girt  round 

"With  blackness  as  a  solid  wall, 
Par  off  she  seems  to  hear  the  dully  sound 
Of  human  footsteps  fall ; 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  127 

As  in  strange  lands  a  traveller  walking  slow, 

In  doubt  and  great  perplexity, 
A  little  before  moon-rise  hears  the  low 

Moan  of  an  unknown  sea, 
And  knows  not  if  it  be  thunder,  or  a  sound 

Of  stones  thrown  down,  or  one  deep  ciy 
Of  great  wild  beasts ;  then  thinketh,  "  I  have  found 

A  new  land,  but  I  die  ! " 


IV. 

OF  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY  OF   CHRISTENDOM, 
REGARDED  AS  A  PRINCIPLE  OF  ETHICS. 


"a  cokrupt  tkee  beixgeth  foeth  evil  fruit." 
Matthew  vii.  19. 

Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  the  popular  Christian 
Theology,  as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe.  To-day  I 
ask  your  attention  to  a  sermon  of  this  Theology, 
regarded  as  a  Principle  of  Ethics;  that  is  to  say, 
of  the  practical  effects  thereof  when  the  idea  shall 
become  a  fact.  I  am  not  now  to  speak  of  the  prac- 
tical effects  of  the  Christian  Religion  ;  that  is  to  say, 
of  piety  and  morality  :  I  am  to  speak  of  something 
very  different ;  namely,  of  the  popular  Theology, 
with  its  false  idea  of  God,  its  false  idea  of  Man,  and 
its  false  idea  of  the  Relation  between  the  two. 

I  shall  not  speak  of  this  theology,  with  these  three 
false  ideas,  as  a  fraud,  but  as  a  mistake.  The  w^orst 
doctrines  thereof,  which  make  man  a  worm,  religion 
a  curse,  immortality  a  torment,  and  God  a  devil, — 
I  take  it,   once  represented  the  honest  thought  of 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  129 

honest  men,  or  what  they  thovg-ht  was  then-  thought. 
John  Calvin  was  an  honest  man;  Augustine  and 
St.  Thomas  were  honest  men ;  Edwards  and  Hop- 
Idns  and  Emmons,  —  they  were  all  honest  men.  The 
greatest  men  may  easily  be  mistaken,  especially  if 
they  throw  away  their  reason  when  they  start.  The 
Hebrew  theology,  the  Greek  and  Roman  theology, 
the  Mahometan  theology,  —  all  these  are  the  produc- 
tions of  honest  men,  who  meant  to  be  right  and  not 
wrong.  So  the  errors  of  alchemy,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  of  astrology,  —  they  also  w^ere  the  mistakes  of 
honest  men. 

This  theology  —  very  much  miscalled  Christian  — 
has  been  made  a  practical  principle  of  Christendom 
for  many  hundred  years.  It  is  set  up  as  religion ; 
for  though  religion  and  theology  are  as  different 
from  one  another  as  breathing  is  different  from  the 
theory  of  breath,  or  as  slumber  is  different  from  the 
philosophy  of  sleep,  yet  it  is  taught  that  this  theol- 
ogy is  religion,  is  Christianity,  and  that  without  this 
there  can  be  no  adequate  piety  and  morality,  no 
sufficient  belief  in  God,  and  no  happiness  in  the  next 
life.  This  theology  declares,  "  There  is  no  stopping 
betwixt  me  and  blank  atheism." 


Since  religion  is  represented  as  thus  unnatural  and 
unreasonable,  there  are  many  who  '^sign  off"  from 
conscious  religion  altogether:  they  reject  it,  and  will 


130  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  It  seems  to  war  with 
their  reason,  with  their  conscience,  their  affections, 
their  soul ;  and  so  as  far  as  possible,  they  reject  it. 
They  mean  to  be  true  to  their  noblest  faculties  in 
doing  so.  The  popular  theology,  with  its  idea  of 
God  and  man,  and  of  their  relation,  is  the  philoso- 
phy of  unreason,  of  folly.  How  can  you  ask  men 
of  large  reason,  large  conscience,  large  affections, 
large  love  for  the  good  God,  to  believe  any  one  of 
the  numerous  schemes  of  the  Trinity,  the  miracles 
of  the  New  or  Old  Testament ;  to  believe  in  the 
existence  of  a  devil  whom  God  has  made,  seeking 
to  devour  mankind  ?  How  can  you  ask  such 
men  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  an  angry  God, 
jealous,  capricious,  selfish,  and  revengeful,  who  has 
made  an  immeasurable  hell  under  his  feet,  wherein 
He  designs  to  crowd  down  ninety-nine  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
thousand  of  his  children  ?  Will  you  ask  Humboldt, 
the  greatest  of  living  philosophers,  to  believe  that  a 
wafer  is  "  the  body  of  God,"  as  the  Catholics  say  ? 
or  Ml*.  Comte,  to  believe  that  the  Bible  is  "  the 
word  of  God,"  as  the  Protestants  say?  Will 
you  ask  a  man  of  great  genius,  of  great  cul- 
ture, to  lay  his  whole  nature  in  the  dust,  and  submit 
to  some  little  man,  with  no  genius,  who  only  reads 
to  him  a  catechism  which  was  dreamed  by  some 
celibate  monks  in  the  dark  ages  of  human  history  ? 
You  cannot  expect  such  men  to  assent  to  that :  as 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  131 

Avcll  might  you  expect  the  whole  solar  system  to  re- 
volve about  the  smallest  satellite  that  belongs  to  the 
planet  Saturn. 

A  Methodist  minister  explained  the  success  of  his 
sect  by  saying,  "  We  preach  religion  without  philos- 
ophy." That  is  to  say,  religion  without  reason; 
resting  on  the  authority  of  the  priest  v/ho  preaches 
it.  An  eminent  Unitarian  minister  says,  "  We  also 
must  preach  religion  without  philosophy."  That  is, 
religion  without  reason,  resting  on  the  authority  of 
the  minister.  What  is  the  effect  of  it  ?  Men  who 
have  philosophy,  who  have  reason,  will  shun 
your  Unitarian  and  Methodist  church,  and  keep  to 
their  reason  and  philosophy;  and  they  will  have  as  lit- 
tle of  such  religion  as  possible.  Will  you  ask  a  philan- 
thropic woman  to  believe  that  "  God  hates  sinners," 
and  will  abandon  His  own  children  to  the  eternal 
torments  of  the  devil,  when  the  philanthropist  would 
not  leave  the  devil's  children  to  their  infernal  father's 
care,  but  lay  down  her  life  to  save  them  ?  Shall 
mortal  men  believe  in  a  God  meaner  and  less  hu- 
mane than  they  themselves  ? 

See  the  effect  of  this  theology.  The  new  litera- 
ture of  our  time,  the  new  science  of  our  time,  the 
new  philanthropy  of  our  time,  have  no  relation  to 
the  popular  theology,  except  a  relation  of  hate  and 
of  warfare.  There  is  a  very  sad  negation  and 
denial  of  religion  in  the  popular  literature.  Religion 
is  seldom  appealed  to  in  the  Houses  of  Parliament, 


132  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

in  Old  England  or  New  England.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear as  conscious  a  motive  force  in  any  of  the  gi-eat 
actions  of  the  age,  in  the  great  philanthropies,  the 
great  philosophies  and  literatures  in  the  great  com- 
merce. In  the  most  popular  writers  of  England, 
France,  Germany,  religion  does  not  appear  at  all  as 
acknowledged  motive.  The  ideal  Brothers  Cheery- 
ble  of  INIr.  Dickens,  the  actual  philanthropists  of 
Europe  and  America  are  God's  men,  but  not  the 
church's  Christians.  All  the  real  piety  which  ap- 
pears in' the  works  and  word  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
all  the  real  philanthropy,  is  bottomed  on  some- 
thing exceedingly  different  from  the  popular  the- 
ology. 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  is  represented  as  a 
curse  ;  and,  accordingly,  that  immortality  is  denied 
by  many  philosophical  good  men.  From  the  dam- 
nation of  theological  immortality  they  flee  away 
for  relief  to  sheer  annihilation ;  —  and  it  is  a  good 
exchange  which  they  make ;  for  if  the  popular  theo- 
logy were  true,  then  immortality  would  be  the 
greatest  curse  which  the  Almighty  God  could 
inflict  on  mankind,  and  the  whole  hum.an  race 
ought  to  go  up  in  a  mass  before  the  Father,  and 
say,  "  Annihilate  us  all  at  once,  and  make  an  end  of 
your  slow,  everlasting  butchery  of  human  souls !  " 

There  is  but  one  denomination  of  hell,  and  in  re- 
spect to  this  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Cath- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  133 

olics  and  the  Protestants  —  only  one  quite  modern 
sect  of  the  latter  formally  and  utterly  rejecting  it. 
With  that  exception  the  modern  Christian  church  is 
unitary  on  the  ghastly  doctrine  of  eternal  damna- 
tion, and  it  makes  small  odds  whether  I  qitote  from 
Aquinas,  Quenstedt,  or  Edwards.  It  is  a  favorite 
doctrine  with  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  clergy. 

According  to  the  popular  theology  the  "  elect "  are 
very  well  satisfied  with  hell  as  the  portion  for  their 
neighbors.  Listen  to  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  is 
commonly  reckoned  one  of  the  ablest  intellectual 
men  New  England  ever  bore  in  her  bosom;  a  self- 
denying  and  good  man,  a  man  who  would  have  laid 
down  his  life  for  his  brother,  if  his  brother  had  need- 
ed the  sacrifice.  Hear  what  he  says,  following  Cal- 
vin and  Aquinas :  "  The  destruction  of  the  unfruit- 
ful" (and  the  unfruitful  are  those  not  elected  to 
eternal  bliss)  "  is  of  use  to  give  the  saints  a  greater 
sense  of  their  own  happiness  and  of  God's  grace  to 
them."  The  damned  "  shall  be  tormented  in  the 
presence  of  the  holy  angels,  and  in  the  presence 
of  the  Lamb.  So  they  will  be  tormented  in  the 
presence  also  of  the  glorified  saints.  Hereby  the 
saints  will  be  made  the  more  sensible  how  great 
their  salvation  is.  When  they  shall  see  how  great  the 
misery  is  from  which  God  hath  saved  them,  and  how 
great  a  difference  He  hath  made  between  their  state 
and  the  state  of  others,  who  were  by  nature  and  per- 
haps for  a  time  by  practice,  no  more  sinful  and  ill- 
12 


134  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

deserving  than  any,  it  will  give  them  a  greater  sense 
of  the  wonderfulness  of  God's  grace  to  them.  Every 
time  they  look  upon  the  damned  it  will  excite  in  them 
a  lively  and  admiring  sense  of  the  grace  of  God  in 
making  them  so  to  differ."  "  The  view  of  the  misery 
of  the  damned  will  double  the  ardor  of  the  love  and 
gratitude  of  the  saints  in  Heaven  ;  "  "  will  make  them 
prize  his  favor  and  love  vastly  the  more,  and  they 
will  be  so  much  the  more  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of 
it." 

A  good  man  on  earth  cannot  eat  his  dinner,  if  a 
hungry  dog  looks  in  his  face,  without  giving  him  a 
bone,  surely  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  his  table ;  but 
the  elect  of  Mr.  Edwards,  chosen  out  of  God's  Uni- 
verse, are  to  whet  their  appetite  with  the  groans  of 
the  damned.  What  shall  we  think  of  the  Ethics 
which  makes  a  Christian  Minister  anticipate  new 
joy  in  heaven  from  looking  down  upon  the  torment 
of  his  former  neighbors  and  friends,  nay,  of  his  own 
children, — and  whetting  his  appetite  for  Heaven  with 
the  smoke  of  torment  steaming  up  from  hell  I  But 
such  is  the  doctrine  of  the  popular  theology  of  New 
England,  and  of  Old  England,  and  all  Christendom. 
The  idea  is  sufficiently  Scriptural,  and  has  long 
been  claimed  as  a  "  doctrine  of  revelation."  Every 
body  who  denies  it  from  Origen  of  Alexandria  to 
Ballou  in  Boston,  gets  a  bad  name  in  the  churches. 
The  idea  of  eternal  damnation  is  the  Goliath  of  the 
church.    Now  I  say  annihilation  is  a  relief  from  that 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  135 

form  of  everlasting  life,  and  that  is  the  cause  why- 
many  men  deny  the  immortality  of  the  souL 

Then  God  is  represented  as  a  tyrant ;  an  omnipo- 
tence of  selfishness,  with  a  mode  of  action  which  is 
wholly  inconsistent  with  the  facts  of  Nature  and  the 
laws  of  the  human  mind.  Of  all  the  grim  concep- 
tions of  Deity  which  men  have  ever  formed,  from 
Tyrian  Melkarth,  to  Scandinavian  Loke,  I  know 
none  more  grim  and  abominable  than  the  conception 
of  God  set  forth  by  some  of  the  ablest  writers  of 
the  Catholic  and  Protestant  church.  It  revolts  the 
dearest  instincts  of  human  nature. 

Accordingly  some  men  deny  the  existence  of  God. 
They  not  only  deny  the  actuality  of  the  popular 
theological  idea  of  God,  but  of  all  possible  ideas  of 
God.  There  is  much  excuse  for  the  speculative 
atheist  in  his  denial. 

The  popular  theological  idea  of  God  is  not  ade- 
quate to  the  purposes  of  science.  God  is  not  repre- 
sented as  really  omnipresent,  a  constant  and  perpetual 
power,  but  as  present  eminently  in  one  spot  called 
Heaven.  A  modern  Doctor  of  Divinity  declares  in 
an  address,  well  studied,  and  delivered  before  schol- 
arly men,  that  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  God  is  in 
all  places  as  He  is  in  some  one  special  place. 
Accordingly  His  action  is  to  be  regarded  as  irregular 
and  spasmodic.  This  doctrine,  though  seldom  plainly 
put,  though  often  denied  in  terms,  lies  deep  in  the 


136  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

popular  theology  —  which  knows  no  God  immanent 
in  the  universe  and  yet  transcendent  thereof.  It  is 
the  Bible  doctrine,  Catholic  and  Protestant. 

Science  knows  no  limited  and  local  God.  Science 
tells  us  of  a  Power  immanent  and  uniform  ; 

"  As  full  as  perfect  in  a  hair  as  heart." 

So  then  Science  rejects  the  theological  idea  of 
God  as  not  being  adequate  for  scientific  purposes. 

Then  as  Theology  tells  you  of  a  God  who  loves 
one  and  rejects  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  out  of 
the  thousand,  modern  Philanthropy  rejects  that  idea 
of  God,  as  inadequate  to  philanthropy.  Science 
rejects  it  because  He  is  impotent ;  Philanthropy 
rejects  it  because  He  is  malignant. 

The  popular  idea  of  God  does  lack  actuality. 
It  is  a  conceivable  nothing,  but  impossible  and  in- 
volving as  much  contradiction  as  the  notion  of  a 
cubical  sphere,  or  of  a  thing  which  is  and  is  not  at 
the  same  time.  The  atheist  is  right  in  denying  the 
existence  of  an  angiy  and  jealous  God,  who  makes 
ninety-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
for  ruin,  and  only  one  for  bliss.  The  "  atheism  "  of 
Comte  and  Feuerbach,  is  higher  and  better  than  the 
theological  idea  of  God,  as  represented  by  Jonathan 
Edwards,  the  great  champion  of  New  England  di- 
vinity. But  Edwards  only  painted  full  length,  and 
in  colors,  what  Augustine  and  Aquinas  and  other 


THE  POrULAR  THEOLOGY.  137 

great  theological  artists  had  faintly  sketched,  with 
paler  tints,  shrinking  back  a  little  from  the  gorgon 
head  they  dimly  drew. 

Now  as  this  theology  gives  us  such  an  unjust  and 
unnatural  idea  of  God,  of  man,  and  of  the  relation 
between  the  two,  there  has  followed,  as  an  unavoid- 
able consequence  of  this,  a  great  denial  of  religion 
all  over  Christendom;  a  denial  of  the  religious 
nature  of  man,  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and 
of  the  existence  of  God.  The  great  priests  are  tech- 
nical Christians  everyw^iere ;  the  great  philosophers 
and  the  great  philanthropists  are  not  technical  Chris- 
tians anywhere.  I  mean  to  say  the  church  does  not 
recognize  them  as  belonging  to  its  bosom ;  —  and 
they  do  not  belong  to  the  church's  bosom.  "What  is 
more  —  the  sincerity  of  the  great  priests  in  their  pro- 
fessions of  theological  belief,  is  popularly  doubted 
just  in  proportion  to  the  intellect  and  education  of 
the  priest ;  while  nobody  doubts  that  the  denial  of 
the  philosopher  is  sincere  and  honest.  Out  of  the 
priesthood  the  great  minds  reject  the  popular  theol- 
ogy; many  of  them  I  fear  reject  all  theology.  Of 
all  the  greatest  minds  of  the  Germanic  race,  Hum- 
boldt, Von-Buch,  Oken,  Oersted,  Vogt,  not  one  of 
them  is  technically  a  Christian.  The  great  Germanic 
minds  not  long  ago  deceased —  Kant,  Fichte,  Hegel, 
Gothe,  Schiller,  and  the  rest  were  any  thing  but  "  pro- 
fessing Christians  ;  "  not  one  of  them  could  accept 
12* 


138  THE  POPULAE  THEOLOGY. 

the  theology  of  the  church  which  baptized  him. 
The  leaders  of  the  new  French  literature,  —  Comte, 
the  Communists,  and  George  Sand,  and  several  popu- 
lar writers  —  they  are  atheistic :  I  mean  speculatively 
atheistic.  I  fear  that  the  leaders  of  English  litera- 
ture are  not  at  all  better,  only  in  the  English  there  is 
a  greater  amount  of  national  reserve ;  they  do  not 
speak  right  out,  as  the  French  or  Germans.  The 
later  works  of  the  greatest  mind  of  England  at  this 
day,  have  no  religiousness  in  them,  according  to  the 
common  sense  of  the  word,  and  he  has  been  led  even 
to  go  far  towards  absolute  denial  of  all  religion  I 

In  England  there  is  a  social  aristocracy  composed 
of  rich  or  well-descended  men ;  they  seem  almost 
entirely  destitute  of  conscious  religion  ;  they  have  no 
theology  which  satisfies  their  intellectual  and  reli- 
gious need.  Some  of  them  turn  round,  and  follow 
the  dim  candle  of  tradition  leading  them  back  to 
mediaeval,  or  even  ante- Christian  darkness.  Some 
positively  deny  the  truths  of  religion  which  come  to 
consciousness  in  every  age,  —  mediaeval  or  ante- 
Christian.  The  most  hopeful  it  is  who  feel  their 
way  along  by  the  natural  instincts  of  the  soul  —  feel- 
ing after  God  if  haply  they  may  find  Him  who  lives 
and  moves  and  has  his  being  in  them,  as  they  theirs  in 
Him.  Near  the  other  extreme  of  society  there  is 
a  large  body  of  hardy,  able,  thinking  men  who  treat 
the  popular  theology  with  well-deserved  scoff  and 
scorn  ;  but  yet  they  see  no  clear  light. 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  139 

On  the  Continent  —  in  addition  to  those  classes 
there  is  another,  — the  army  of  learned  men, — whose 
doubts  are  yet  deeper  than  the  English,  and  their 
denial  less  compromising  and  more  public.  Since 
the  breaking  up  of  Paganism  in  Europe,  there  has 
never  been  such  a  period  of  distrust,  of  anarchy,  and 
of  chaos  in  religion. 

Is  it  any  better  in  America  ?  Here  the  ablest  men 
are  so  busy  in  the  race  for  money  or  for  rank,  men 
are  so  uniformly  "up  for  California,"  or  "up  for 
office,"  that  there  seems  to  be  little  thought  in 
that  quarter  directed  to  theological  or  religious  mat- 
ter. Among  these  men  compliance  with  popular 
opinion  and  popular  forms,  I  suppose  often  means 
the  same  in  America  in  our  time,  as  in  Rome  in  the 
*days  of  Cicero. 

New^ton  and  Leibnitz  two  hundred  years  ago  were 
the  tallest  heads  in  Europe  ;  they  were  the  leaders 
also  in  the  religion  of  Europe,  and  a  strong  con- 
sciousness of  God  pervades  all  the  writings  of  those 
mighty  men.  But  the  minds  that  at  this  day  take 
the  place  of  the  Newtons  and  Leibnitzes  of  the  last 
age,  are  silent  on  the  matter,  or  else  mock  it  to  scorn. 
I  do  not  know  a  single  great  philosopher  in  all  Chris- 
tendom who  isj  in  the  technical  sense  of  the  churches, 
a  "  Christian,"  or  who  would  wish  to  be.  Of  course 
these  men  have  the  elements  of  religion,  —  love  of 
justice,  love  of  truth,  love  of  man,  and  of  faithful- 
ness  to   their   own    souls;    but   they  do  not  often 


140  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

make  it  consciously  religion,  and  seem  to  have  little 
conscious  trust  in  God. 

This  theology  has  led  to  a  great  amount  of  real 
rejection  of  religion  by  men  who  wish  to  be  faithful 
to  their  nature  in  all  its  parts.  It  is  of  no  use  to  say 
they  are  bad  men.  They  are  not  bad  men :  they 
lead  the  science,  and  philanthropies  of  the  world ; 
and  I  am  afraid  that  the  average  speculative  "  athe- 
ist," as  he  calls  himself,  is  at  this  day  better  than  the 
average  speculative  "  Christians,"  as  they  call  them- 
selves. The  atheist  has  abandoned  religion  because 
it  is  painted  in  such  a  form  that  it  seems  worse  than 
atheism.  The  church  taught  him  his  denial,  and  it 
ought  to  baptize  him,  and  not  blaspheme  him.  I 
think  Calvin  and  Edwards  have  driven  more  men 
from  religion  than  all  the  speculative  "  atheists  "  have 
ever  done  from  Pomponatius  to  Feuerbach. 

Then  there  are  bad  men  who  reject  religion,  reject 
it  in  their  badness.  The  popular  theology  is  no  ter- 
ror to  the  wicked  man.  The  coiTupt  politician  of 
England,  America,  Germany,  France,  the  extor- 
tioner, the  kidnapper,  —  they  pretend  to  accept  this 
theology,  they  join  the  church,  bring  the  minister 
over  to  their  side,  and  do  not  fear  a  single  faggot  in 
the  great  hell  of  theology.  They  may  laugh  at  the 
theological  devil,  they  can  beat  him  at  his  own  wea- 
pons. The  baron  of  the  Middle  Ages  living  for  the 
flesh,  and  against  the  better  instincts  of  his  soul,  kept 
clear  of  the  church  till  death  knocked  at  his  door, 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  141 

then  all  at  once  compounded  for  sin,  appeased  the 
clergy,  and  paid  off  the  old  score.  The  modern  free- 
booters pay  as  they  go.  It  is  the  cheaper  way. 
What  does  the  American  slave-holder  care  for  the 
devil,  for  hell,  or  for  the  God  of  Christian  theology  ? 
He  gets  ministers  enough  to  baptize  slave-holding, 
and  prove  it  is  "  only  the  application  of  the  golden 
rule  to  life."  "  Christianity  "  is  not  a  terror  to  evil 
doers,  but  it  is  a  terror  to  good  doers  ;  for  at  least  the 
American  churches  launch  their  feeble  thunders  in 
the  defence  of  every  popular  wickedness. 


Now  see  the  effect  of  this  theology  on  such  as 
accept  it.  , 

Note  first  its  effect  on  the  Feelings.  Religion  is 
not  thought  a  welcome  thing,  a  thing  that  is  to  be 
loved  for  its  ow^n  sake.  Men  do  not  love  to  speak  of 
it;  it  is  a  subject  almost  wholly  banished  from  "good 
society."  It  is  sad,  grim,  melancholy ;  it  is  not 
love,  it  is  fear ;  almost  wholly  fear.  If  you  take  the 
theological  idea  of  God,  you  cannot  love  Him,  —  I 
defy  anybody  to  love  Jonathan  Edwards's  or  John 
Calvin's  conception  of  the  Deity :  you  can  only  fear 
Him  as  the  great  jailor  and  hangman  and  tormentor 
of  the  universe,  the  divine  exploiterer  of  the  race. 
His  world  is  represented  as  a  great  inquisition  —  the 
torture-chamber  holding  in  its  hideous  embrace  all 
but  ten  in  the  million  I     Ask  the  children  brought 


142  THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

up  in  families  who  believe  much  in  this  theology,  if 
they  ever  liked  religion  :  ask  the  grown  men.  Look 
in  the  faces  of  the  severe  sects  who  take  this  theol- 
ogy to  heart,  and  what  sad,  joyless  faces  they  are. 
Read  the  publications  of  the  American  Tract  Socie- 
ty, read  the  New  England  Primer,  the  popular  books 
treating  of  religion  and  circulated  in  all  Catholic 
countries,  and  you  see  that  this  religion  is  fear,  and 
not  joy.  Men  hold  their  breath  when  it  thunders 
lest  God  should  hear  them  breathe,  and  lay  at  them 
with  his  lightning.  I  once  heard  an  eminent  Trini- 
tarian minister  preach  in  this  city  that  it  was  wholly 
impossible  for  God  to  love  any  man  except  just  so 
far  as  that  man  believed  all  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  and  the  New  England  Primer,  and  kept  every 
commandment  in  both  of  these  books.  So  then, 
there  could  only  be  a  very  few  millions  of  the  whole 
world  that  God  cared  any  thing  about.  All  the  rest 
He  would  damn,  and  they  would  get  hell-fire,  but  no 
pity  from  angel,  God,  or  devil.  No  Abraham  would 
give  Dives  a  drop  of  water  from  his  finger's  tip. 
Could  you  love  such  a  God  ?  I  should  hate  such 
an  one ;  not  as  I  should  dislike  a  tyrant  like  Cesar 
Borgia,  or  even  as  I  should  loathe  a  New  England 
kidnapper,  but  as  I  should  hate  a  devil. 

God  is  represented  as  selfish  and  only  selfish,  and 
selfish  continually.  He  has  the  power  to  bless  men, 
and  prefers  to  curse  them.  Religion  is  represented 
as  selfishness,  only  carried  out  to  all  eternity,  —  and 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  143 

such  selfishness  too  as  none  but  ph*ates  and  kidnap- 
pers ever  practise  on  earth.  "  Aha,"  say  the  blessed 
Catholics  of  Aquinas,  •'  Aha,"  say  the  elect  Puritans 
of  Edwards,  as  they  look  on  the  torture  of  their 
brethren,  "  Let  God  be  praised  for  the  torment  of 
the  wicked  ;    so  religion  bids  ! " 

This  crow  of  fear  flies  round  all  the  churches  of 
Christendom.  IMen  fear  death ;  they  are  afraid  of 
hell.  Read  the  Dies  Irae  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
the  "  Judgment  Hymns  "  of  the  Protestants,  or  still 
worse  hear  them  sung  by  some  full-voiced  choir  to 
appropriate  music,  and  you  understand  what  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  the  ecclesiastical  service.  Attend  a 
funeral  in  one  of  the  stricter  sects,  —  the  funeral  of 
the  best  man  you  can  find,  but  one  who  was  not  a 
"  church  member ;  "  —  and  how  cheerless,  how  hope- 
less, how  comfortless !  You  would  think  that  the 
door  which  led  to  the  street  where  the  last  and 
loved  remains  of  the  friend,  husband,  father,  were 
to  be  borne  out,  opened  into  the  bottomless  pit.  Men 
talk  of  death,  and  say  it  is  a  dreadful  thing  to  come 
into  the  presence  of  the  Living  God!  Are  we  not 
always  in  Thy  presence,  O  Living  Father?  Are 
not  these  flowers  Thy  gift  ?  and  when  I  blossom  out 
of  the  body,  and  the  husks  of  the  flesh  drop  away, 
is  it  a  dreadful  thing  to  come  into  thy  presence,  O 
Living  God ;  to  be  taken  to  the  arms  of  the 
Mother  who  bore  me  ? 

I  once  knew  a  boy  of  early  development  in  reli- 


144  THE  POPULAE  THEOLOGY. 

gioiij  dry-nursed  at  school,  against  his  father's  com- 
mand, on  the  New  England  Primer,  and  he  was  filled 
with  ghastly  fear  of  the  God  represented  in  that 
Primer,  and  the  hell  thereof,  and  the  devil  therein, 
and  he  used  to  sob  himself  to  sleep  with  the  prayer, 
"  O  God  I  I  beg  that  I  may  not  be  damned !  "  until 
at  last,  before  eight  years  old,  driven  to  desperation 
by  that  fear,  he  made  way  with  that  Primer,  and 
with  its  grim  God,  and  hell,  and  devil,  and  found 
rest  for  his  soul  in  the  spontaneous  teachings  of  the 
religious  sentiment  which  sprung  up  in  his  heart. 
There  are  many  who  have  been  tortured  by  it  all 
their  lives  long,  and  who  have  not  sobbed  themselves 
to  sleep  after  four-score  years  of  torment. 

You  may  divide  the  feelings  into  two  classes ;  one 
that  seeks  a  finite  object,  —  father,  mother,  child, 
brother,  sister,  aunt,  friend ;  the  other  which  seeks 
the  infinite  Object,  the  Father  and  Mother  of  all. 
This  theology  is  poison  and  blight  and  mildew  to 
both  of  these  classes  of  feelings.  It  makes  the 
trembling  mother  afraid  that  she  shall  love  her  child 
too  well;  so  the  desire  of  the  finite  object  is  balked 
of  its  satisfaction.  She  cannot  love  the  God  painted 
to  her  in  the  dark  theology  of  our  day  —  and  so  the 
infinite  hunger  of  the  soul  is  yet  unstilled. 

Note  its  effect  on  the  Intellect.  It  debases  the 
mind.  Quoth  theology,  "  Reason  is  carnal :  you  must 
accept  the  Scriptures  as  the  word  of  God,  the  Old 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  145 

Testament  as  His  first  word,  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  His  last  word  :  therein  God  has  spoken  once 
for  all ;  you  can  get  nothing  fm*ther  from  Him.  You 
must  prostrate  your  mind  to  the  Bible  ;  you  must 
believe  it  all." 

The  Christian  Church  is  the  great  idol  of  the 
Catholics ;  it  is  infallible.  The  Pope  is  the  church 
in  little ;  he  is  infallible,  and  is  God,  so  far  as  doc- 
trine is  concerned.  With  the  Protestants  the  Bible 
stands  in  just  the  same  place  :  it  is  God  to  the  Prot- 
estant theology,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  so  far 
as  doctrine  is  concerned. 

This  theology  stands  in  the  way  of  physical 
science.  This  is  the  scheme  of  the  Universe  which 
belongs  to  the  popular  theology :  There  is  an  ex- 
panse called  the  earth  with  its  hills  and  vallies,  rivers, 
lakes,  and  seas ;  next  below  it,  there  are  the  waters 
which  are  under  the  earth  ;  then  above  it  is  the  firm- 
ament, beneath  which  are  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
stars,  and  above  it  the  waters  which  are  over  the 
earth  ;  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  move  round  the  earth. 
This  rude  notion  has  long  stood  in  the  way  of 
science  ;  it  wrung  from  Alphonso  of  Castile,  the 
exclamation,  "  If  God  had  asked  my  advice  at  the 
creation,  the  world  would  have  been  more  simple 
and  better  arranged."  Galileo  must  subscribe  to 
this  scheme  of  the  universe,  or  be  burned  at  the  stake. 
The  Jesuits  who  edited  Newton's  Principia  declare 
that  his  theory  is  contrary  to  theology  —  and  they 
13 


146  THE  POPULAE  THEOLOGY. 

publish  his  mathematical  demonstrations  of  the  rev- 
olutions of  the  earth  only  as  a  "  hypothesis,"  as  a 
theory  not  a  fact. 

The  popular  theology  meets  the  Geologists  -at 
every  turn,  and  denies  the  most  obvious  phenomena 
of  sense,  and  the  strictest  conclusions  of  science. 
Said  an  eminent  theologian,  a  professor  in  the  most 
liberal  theological  school  in  America  :  I  can  believe 
that  God  created  all  the  geological  strata  of  the 
Earth,  with  their  fossil  remains,  all  at  once,  just  as 
they  are  to-day,  much  easier  than  I  can  believe  the 
popular  theology  is  mistaken  in  its  account  of  the 
creation  in  six  days !  Geology  must  give  way  to 
Genesis. 

It  stands  in  the  way  of  history.  This  is  the  the- 
ological scheme  of  human  history  :  About  six  thou- 
sand years  ago  God  created  one  man,  and  out  of  one 
of  his  ribs  formed  one  woman.  The  human  race  is 
descended  from  that  pair.  About  fifteen  hundred  years 
later  He  destroyed  by  a  flood  all  their  descendants 
except  a  single  family  from  which  all  the  men  now 
on  earth  have  descended.  God  chose  one  family 
out  of  all  the  rest,  made  a  bargain  with  them,  re- 
vealed Himself  to  them,  and  not  to  others,  and  loved 
them  while  he  hated  the  rest,  and  protected  his  cho- 
sen by  constant  miracles,  giving  Abraham  a  son 
miraculously  born,  then  miraculously  commanding 
the  father  to  offer  him  as  a  bloody  sacrifice  ;  and  at 
last  God  Himself  becomes  a  man,  born  miraculously. 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  147 

and  lives  a  human  life  on  earth,  is  put  to  death,  and 
thence  returns  to  life  and  divinity  once  more.  The- 
ology sharply  opposes  every  discovery,  every  fact,  and 
every  thought  which  is  at  variance  with  these  as- 
sumptions. It  demands  belief  therein  as  the  condi- 
tion of  religion  and  of  acceptance  with  God. 

See  how  this  theology  affects  the  Conscience.  If 
you  wish  to  know  what  is  right,  for  the  standard  of 
ultimate  appeal,  the  theologian  sends  you  to  the 
Bible,  —  full  of  blessed  things,  but  no  master ;  it 
contains  the  opinions  of  forty  or  fifty  different  men, 
the  greater  part  of  them  living  from  four  to  ten  hun- 
dred years  before  Jesus,  and  belonging  to  a  people 
we  should  now  call  half-civilized.  For  example,  if 
you  ask.  Is  it  right  for  the  community  to  kill  a  man 
who  has  slain  one  of  his  neighbors,  when  the  com- 
munity have  caught  and  put  him  in  a  jail,  and  can  keep 
him  there  all  his  life,  shut  from  doing  harm  ?  —  the 
theologian  sends  you  to  the  Bible,  and  tells  you  that 
once,  (nobody  knows  when,)  somebody,  (nobody 
knows  who,)  in  some  place,  (nobody  knows  where,) 
said,  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall 
his  blood  be  shed !  "  —  and  therefore  to  the  end  of 
time  you  shall  hang  every  murderer. 

You  ask.  Is  it  right  to  catch  a  dark-colored  man, 
and  make  him  your  slave  for  life  and  pay  him  noth- 
ing for  his  services  ?  and  Theology  answers,  "  Yes, 


148  THE  POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

for  Abraham  did  so,  even  with  white  men,  and  every- 
thing that  Abraham  did  of  course  was  right ; "  and 
next,  Paul  sent  back  a  man  who  had  fled  from  bon- 
dage, —  only  he  was  not  black,  but  white ;  and 
thirdly,  —  and  this  is  the  great  argument  of  all,  — 
Ham,  the  son  of  Noah  laughed  at  his  father  when 
he  was  drunk,  and  when  Noah  woke  up  from  his 
debauch  he  cursed  the  son  of  Ham,  saying,  "  Cursed 
be  Canaan  I  a  servant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his 
brethren  I "  and  therefore  the  whites  are  right  in 
enslaving  the  blacks.  This  is  the  theological  argu- 
ment. 

I  ask,  Must  I  obey  the  law  of  man,  when  it  offends 
'my  conscience  ?  Yes,  says  Theology,  for  when 
Nero  was  emperor  of  Rome  a  poor  sailinaker  said, 
"  The  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God,"  and  "  who- 
soever resisteth  the  power  resisteth  the  ordinance 
of  God."  The  fact  that  Paul's  noble  life  was  a 
manly  resistance  of  tyrants,  and  a  brave  obedience 
to  God,  is  not  taken  into  the  account. 

This  theology  leads  men  to  disregard  the  natm-al 
laws  of  both  body  and  spirit,  in  order  to  keep  an 
arbitrary  command.  So  it  underrates  natural  moral- 
ity and  natural  piety.  Men  keep  the  Ten  Com- 
m-andments :  therein  they  do  well ;  but  they  forget 
that  every  faculty  of  the  body,  every  faculty  of  the 
spirit  —  of  the  mind,  the  conscience,  the  heart,  and 
the  soul,  —  has  also  its  commandments,  just  as  im- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  149 

perative  as  though  they  had  been  thundered  forth  by 
the  voice  of  the  Most  High,  amidst  the  clouds  of 
Sinai.     The  popular  theology  denies  this. 


See  the  effect  of  this  theology  on  Practical  Life. 
Religion  is  largely  separated  from  daily  work  and 
daily  charity.  It  has  a  place  for  itself,  the  meeting- 
house ;  a  time  for  itself,  Sunday  or  the  hour  of 
prayer.  It  is  not  thought  that  "  saving  religion " 
has  any  thing  important  to  do  in  the  chaisemaker's 
yard,  in  the  tailor's  shop,  or  on  the  farm  of  the  hus- 
bandman, in  the  counting-house  of  the  merchant,  or 
the  banking-house  of  the  capitalist.  Religion  con- 
sists, first,  in  belief;  next  in  sacraments,  —  ritual 
work,  attending  meeting  by  passive  bodily  presence, 
baptism,  prayer  in  words,  and  communion,  as  it 
is  called,  by  bread  and  wine.  Religion  is  for 
eternity ;  its  function  is  to  get  souls  "  saved,"  "  re- 
deemed;"—  saved  from  an  angry  God,  redeemed 
from  eternal  torment;  not  saved  from  a  mean  and 
selfish  and  wicked  life,  not  saved  from  this  cowardly 
and  boyish  fear  of  death,  —  by  no  means  that. 

A  practical  philanthropist  who  picks  drunkards 
out  of  the  mire,  gets  them  washed  and  clothed  and 
restored  to  their  right  mind,  once  visited  a  poor 
widow  in  a  cold  winter  day.  She  had  no  wood  to 
burn,  no  means  to  get  it.  A  clergyman  was  trying 
to  console  her ;  "  Have  faith  in  Christ,"  said  he,  "  He 
13* 


150  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

will  help  you  !  "  Quoth  the  practical  man,  "  It  is  not 
faith  in  Christ  she  lacks,  she  has  as  much  of  that  as 
you  or  I,  it  is  luood  she  stands  in  need  of.  Her  faith 
will  not  save  her,  with  the  thermometer  at  zero.  Do 
you  think  the  Saviour  will  come  and  tip  her  up  two 
feet  of  wood  at  her  door  ?  No  such  thing  !  She  has 
got  faith, 'but  lacks  fuel."  The  missionary  v/ent  his 
way,  there  was  no  more  that  he  could  do,  the  practi- 
cal man  had  the  wood  there  in  an  hour! 

The  Unitarians  and  Universalists  have  less  of  the 
popular  theology  than  the  other  sects.  I  have  heard 
Orthodox  men  confess  the  fact  that  these  heretics 
were  the  best  neighbors,  the  best  friends,  the  most 
honest  business  men,  eminent  in  charity  and  all  good 
works;  and  I  believe  the  praise  was  pretty  true:  but, 
they  said,  they  are  the  worst  Christians  in  the  world, 
and  all  their  goodness  is  good  for  nothing,  except  in 
this  life,  and  God  does  not  value  then*  works  a  straw ; 
at  the  last  day  He  will  pass  by  every  Universal- 
ist  and  Unitarian  in  the  world,  with  all  their  philan- 
thropy, to  save  some  Orthodox  deacon  who  never 
went  out  of  his  way  to  do  a  kind  deed. 

Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that  men  who  are  eminent 
for  theological  piety  are  not  to  be  trusted.  Their 
theology  makes  them  attend  to  beliefs,  rituals,  and 
sacraments,  but  there  it  ends.  ]Mr.  Screw  has  the 
devoutest  belief  in  the  popular  theology,  never  fails 
of  a  sacrament,  never  cherishes  a  doubt.  His  morn- 
ing and  evening  are  fringed  with  a  form  of  prayer, 


THE   rOrULAR   THEOLOGY.  151 

but  he  will  devour  a  widow's  house  the  next  mo- 
ment, and  say  grace  after  the  meal.  Says  an  Ai*a- 
bian  proverb,  "  A  man  who  has  been  a  pilgrimage 
to  Mecca  is  not  to  be  trusted  again."  Men  that 
have  much  of  this  theology,  and  its  "  piety,"  gene- 
rally have  a  bad  name  in  business.  A  business  man 
told  me  he  always  wanted  more  endorsement  on  a 
note  from  a  long-faced  man,  eminent  in  theology, 
than  from  a  common  man  who  met  him  in  the 
street.  They  are  said  to  be  worse  in  these  matters 
than  other  men ;  I  mean  more  covetous,  more  sly, 
more  grasping,  less  to  be  relied  upon.  The  severe 
sects  are  austere  in  their  theology,  loose  in  business ; 
strict  in  sacrament,  lax  in  charity ;  instant  in  prayer, 
not  seasonable  in  humane  work.  If  you  want  self- 
denial  to  spread  abroad  the  doctrines  of  their  sect, 
there  are  no  men  so  ready  to  make  such  sacrifice. 
The  efforts  which  have  been  made  in  the  stricter 
American  Churches  to  carry  what  they  call  the  Gos- 
pel —  but  which  is  only  their  theology  —  to  Heathen 
lands,  are  of  immense  value  to  the  men  who  have 
made  the  sacrifice  ;  whether  the  Heathen  are  thereby 
profited  I  will  not  say.  But  for  works  in  morality, 
in  philanthropy,  in  charity,  these  sects  are  not  first 
and  foremost.  Of  self-denial  for  a  theological  pur- 
pose they  have  the  manliest  abundance,  but  of  self- 
denial  for  humanity  the  meanest  lack. 

The  present  position  of  the  clergy  is  to  be  attribu- 
ted to  the  character  of  their  theology.     There  are  at 


152  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

this  day  about  twenty-eight  thousand  Protestant 
clergymen  in  the  United  States,  and  about  a  thou- 
sand Catholic  priests.  Almost  all  of  them  come 
from  the  middle  class  in  society, — the  class  most 
remarkable  for  industry,  enterprise,  charity,  morality, 
and  piety, — in  a  word,  for  religion.  They  have  the 
most  costly  culture  of  any  class  in  the  nation :  the 
professional  education  of  the  clergymen  has  cost  the 
public  more  than  the  professional  culture  of  all  the 
lawyers ;  or  all  the  doctors,  or  all  the  merchants  and 
men  of  science  and  literature  in  the  country;  for 
most  of  these  latter  men  pay  for  their  education  as 
they  go,  or  at  any  rate  their  fathers  pay  for  it,  but  a 
large  special  outlay  is  made  by  public  charity,  for 
the  education  of  the  minister,  —  very  properly  made 
too.  Nine-tenths  of  these,  I  believe,  who  accept 
this  calling,  come  to  it  from  a  love  of  it,  from  a  de- 
sire to  serve  God  in  it ;  not  from  selfishness,  but  with 
the  expectation  of  self-denial.  Surely  at  this  day 
there  is  little  from  without  to  attract  a  man  to  so 
thankless  a  calling,  for  their  average  pay  does  not 
equal  that  of  a  fireman  on  a  railroad.  They  count 
it  the  holiest  and  most  arduous  office  in  the  world. 
But  yet,  starting  from  that  class,  with  that  education, 
the  best  in  the  land,  and  with  such  noble  motives, — 
how  very  little  do  they  bring  to  pass,  in  promoting 
sentiments  of  love  to  God  and  man ;  how  little  in 
diffusing  ideas  of  truth  and  justice,  or  in  any  noble 
action  in  any  practical  department  of  life !    They  do 


THE  rOPULAPt  THEOLOGY.  153 

exceedingly  little  for  any  one  of  the  three.  Many  of 
these  men  stand  in  the  way  of  the  human  race,  and 
while  mankind  is  painfully  toiling  up  hill  they  block 
the  wheels  forward  and  not  hind  ward. 

This  is  not  wholly  the  fault  of  these  men.  They  are 
earnest  and  self-denying  men,  and  mean  to  be  faith- 
ful, most  of  them.  But  it  is  the  bad  theology  they 
start  with  which  hinders  them,  —  their  false  idea  of 
God,  of  man,  and  of  religion,  the  relation  between 
God  and  man. 

They  are  working  with  bad  tools,  —  dull  theology, 
dull  sermons.  Once  a  clam  shell  w^as  the  best  cut- 
ting instrument  which  the  human  race  had  used  or 
discovered.  Then  it  was  received  with  thankfulness 
of  heart.  But  if  a  man  in  these  times  should  go 
out  into  the  fields  to  cut  grass  or  corn  with  a  clam 
shell,  how  do  you  think  his  day's  work  would  com- 
pare with  that  of  a  man  who  mowed  with  scythes, 
or  reaped  with  sickles,  or  with  shears  moved  by  hor- 
ses cut  down  an  acre  in  an  hour  ?  Verily  the  fields 
are  white  for  harvest,  the  labourers  many,  but  with 
the  clam  shell  for  sickle,  they  tread  down  more  with 
their  feet  than  they  bind  up  with  arms  ! 

The  clergymen  cannot  defend  their  theology. 
Attacks  have  long  ago  been  made  against  the  phi- 
losophical part  of  it,  and  they  have  never  been 
repelled ;  against  the  historical  part  of  it,  and  there 
is  no  satisfactory  answer  thereto.  The  Uni- 
tarians   have   attacked   the   divinity   of  Jesus,   the 


154  THE   POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

Universalists  the  eternity  of  hell,  and  the  attacks 
have  not  been  philosophically  met.  There  is  a 
breach  in  the  theologic  wall,  not  filled  up  save  with 
denunciations,  which  are  but  straws  that  a  breath 
blows  off,  or  which  rot  of  their  own  accord. 

Within  a  few  years  most  serious  attacks  have 
been  made  on  the  "inspiration  of  the  Scripture." 
Its  physics  are  shown  to  be  false  science,  its  meta- 
physics false  philosophy,  its  history  often  mistaken. 
In  England,  Mr.  Hennell  denies  the  divine  origin  of 
Christianity,  and  writes  a  labored  book  to  prove  that 
it  came  as  other  forms  of  religion  have  come,  —  the 
best  thought  of  noble  men.  In  Germany,  IVIr. 
Strauss,  with  a  troop  of  scholars  before  and  behind 
him,  denies  the  accuracy  of  the  history  of  the  New 
Testament;  denies  the  divine  birth  of  Jesus,  his 
miracles,  his  ascension,  his  resurrection  —  they  are 
what  one  of  the  latest  writers  of  the  New  Testament 
calls  "  old  wives'  fables ; "  IVIr.  Newman  tells  of  "  the 
Soul,  her  sorrows  and  her  aspirations,"  and  shows 
the  "  Phases  of  Faith  "  which  a  devout  and  truthful 
spirit  passes  through  in  the  journey  after  religion, 
exposing  the  dreadful  famine  in  the  churches,  and 
showing  that  much  of  the  popular  theology  is  a 
mere  show-bread  which  it  is  not  possible  for  a 
man  to  feed  on.  No  man  shows  that  Newman  is 
mistaken,  no  man  refutes  Strauss,  no  man  answers 
Hennell.  Books  enough  are  written  it  is  true :  "  Lives 
of  Jesus,"    "  Defences   of  Miracles,"  "  Evidences  of 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  155 

Christianity,"  —  to  prove  that  some  men  wrote  some 
books  with  such  miracnlons  helps  from  God  that 
they  could  make  no  mistakes,  but  yet  the  mistakes 
are  there  in  the  books  ;  — "  Voices  of  the  Church," 
^'  Eclipses  of  Faith,"  and  the  like,  and  denunciations 
"  Against  Freethinking,"  without  stint.  Now  and 
then  a  feeble  charge  is  repelled,  a  weak  position  of 
the  assailant  is  re-conquered,  but  still  the  theologians 
are  continually  beaten  and  driven  back  before  the 
artillery  of  thought. 

Church  membership  is  thought  a  needful  condition 
of  salvation :  without  that  a  man  is  not  a  Christian 
in  full,  and  is  not  sure  of  any  thing  good  hereafter. 
But  very  few  join  the  church.  Of  the  twenty-three 
millions  of  America,  there  are  not  three  and  a  half 
million  members  of  the  Protestant  Church,  not  one 
hundred  and  thirty  to  a  minister ;  —  a  little  more  than 
three  million  Protestant  church-members,  a  little 
more  than  three  million  slaves  also.  Singular  sta- 
tistics !  so  many  church-members,  so  many  slaves. 
There  were  never  so  many  voters  with  so  small  a 
proportion  of  church-members ;  never  so  small  a 
proportionate  sprinkling  of  baptism  in  the  face  of 
the  community ;  never  so  little  taking  of  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  church. 

Ecclesiastical  interests  do  not  thrive.  Compare 
the  interest  men  take  in  a  bank,  in  a  manufacturing 
company,  in  a  lyceum,  with  what  they  take  in  a 
church.     And  yet  the  minister  tells  them  that  the 


156  TEE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY. 

bank,  the  lycenm,  and  the  manufactory  are  only  for 
to-day  and  to  morrow  —  for  the  body,  while  the 
chm'ch  is  for  the  soul,  and  forever  I 

What  is  the  reason  of  this  lack  of  interest  ?  Even 
clergymen  themselves  partake  of  the  general  dul- 
ness,  and  do  not  study  as  the  doctors  and  men  of 
science  study ;  do  not  plead  for  the  souls  of  men,  as 
the  lawyer  for  their  money ;  do  not  toil  as  the  mer- 
chant or  mechanic  for  his  gain.  Clergymen  do  not 
study  the  science  of  their  calling  as  the  physicians, 
the  engineers,  the  manufacturers  of  cloth  or  leather, 
the  geologists,  the  watchmakers  study  the  science  of 
their  calling.  Even  the  almanac-maker  is  a  philos- 
opher ;  the  clergyman,  —  how  seldom  does  he  show 
any  tinge  of  philosophical  culture  ? 

In  practical  affairs  the  American  clergy  have  but 
little  good  influence  on  public  morals  and  manners  ; 
an  influence  not  at  all  in  proportion  to  the  number, 
the  education,  the  character,  the  position,  and  the 
motives  of  these  men. 

Politicians  declare  there  is  no  law  higher  than  an 
Act  of  Congress,  which  makes  it  felony  to  give  a 
cup  of  cold  water  to  a  man  fleeing  from  bondage. 
What  do  the  clergymen  say?  "  The  powers  that  be 
are  ordained  of  God,  and  whoso  resisteth  the  powers 
that  be  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God."  "  Religion 
is  an  excellent  thing,"  says  the  politician,  "  for  every 
thing  but  politics  :  there  it  makes  men  mad."  The 
minister  does  not  say,  "  I  am  not  mad,  most  noble 


THE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  157 

Festiis,  but  speak  forth  the  words  of  soberness  and 
truth:" — not  at  all.  Felix  trembled  before  Paul 
preaching  ;  now  Paul  in  the  pulpit,  preaching,  trem- 
bles before  Felix  in  the  pew  slumbering.  Says  the 
statesman,  "  Religion  must  not  be  applied  to  poli- 
tics :  there  let  us  be  practical  atheists."  The  minis- 
ter says,  "  I  will  not  apply  religion  to  politics.  Be 
practical  atheists  there.  I  will  not  disturb  you.  My 
Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." 

Traders  apply  to  business  the  same  principle 
which  the  politician  applies  to  the  State,  and  say, 
"  Religion  is  an  excellent  thing  everywhere  but  in 
business :  there  it  makes  men  mad.  The  '  golden 
rule '  is  the  last  one  that  the  merchant  ought  to  have 
in  his  desk  ;  it  is  wholly  unknown  to  the  official 
'  sealer  of  weights  and  measures.'  Let  us  not  apply 
religion  to  business."  The  clergymen  answer,  "  Let 
us  not  apply  religion  to  business.  Here  let  us  be 
practical  atheists  together.  The  golden  rule  is  for  the 
pulpit  desk ;  for  Sunday,  not  for  the  counting-house 
and  the  merchant's  shop.  Religion  is  to  get  the  soul 
saved,  not  to  prevent  the  extortion  of  the  usurer,  or 
the  tyranny  of  the  oppressor.  Business  is  business, 
religion  is  religion." 

Different  traders  make   particular  application   of 

this  rule  to  their  several  specialities.     Says  the  liquor 

dealer,  "  Religion  is  an  excellent  thing  everywhere 

but  in  the  rum  trade  :  there  it  makes  men  mad.     Let 

14 


158  THE   POPULAH   THEOLOGY. 

US  never  apply  it  to  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drink." 
The  clergyman  says,  "  Let  it  be  so."  Says  the  deal- 
er in  human  flesh,  "  Religion  is  a  most  excellent 
thing  in  all  matters  except  slave-trading :  there  it 
makes  men  mad.  Let  us  not  apply  religion  to  the 
'  patriarchal  institution.'  "  The  clergyman  answers, 
"  Slavery  is  of  God.  Abraham  was  a  slave-holder ; 
Christ  Jesus  says  nothing  against  the  worst  evils  of 
Grecian  or  of  Roman  slavery,  —  not  a  word  against 
buying  slaves,  breeding  slaves,  selling  slaves,  beating 
slaves,  or  putting  them  to  death.  It  is  plain  that  he 
approved  of  the  institution,  and  designed  that  it 
should  be  perpetual.  The  great  Apostle  to  the  Gen- 
tiles sent  back  a  runaway  slave,  thus  executing  the 
fugitive  slave  act  of  those  times,  and  giving  an  ex- 
ample to  Christians  to  fulfil  all  righteousness.  It  is 
only  '  natural  religion '  which  forbids  slavery,  the 
heathenism  of  pagan  Seneca  and  Modestinus. 
Christians  are  not  in  a  state  of  Nature,  but  of  Grace. 
One  of  ^the  advantages  of  a  revelation'  is  this  — 
the  kidnapper  may  keep  his  bondman  forever.  INIr. 
Jefferson  said  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  natural  and  unalienable 
Rights,  amongst  others  with  the  Right  to  Life,  Lib- 
erty, and  the  Pm'suit  of  Happiness.  He  was  an  in- 
fidel, stumbling  by  the  light  of  Nature,  but  we  have 
a  more  excellent  way,  and  hold  slaves  by  divine  rev- 
elation which  transcends  the  light  of  Nature.     Let 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  159 

US  not  destroy  slavery  by  '  natural  religion,'  but  pre- 
serve it  by  '  Christianity.'  It  is  a  good  thing  to 
have  as  many  slaves  as  church-members." 

At  this  day  the  popular  preaching  does  very  little 
to  correct  the  great  popular  sins  of  the  people.  It 
does  more  to  encourage  them.  Here  are  the  vices  of 
the  leading  class  of  men  in  their  period  of  calcula- 
tion after  the  period  of  passion  has  passed  by  — 
covetousness  of  money,  ambition  for  political  and 
social  rank.  Both  of  these  are  unscrupulous  in  their 
modes  of  action.  Does  the  body  of  clergymen  do 
any  thing  to  correct  this  evil,  —  corruption  in  trade, 
corruption  in  politics  ?  Far  more  I  think  to  encour- 
age each  of  these  leading  vices  of  the  nation. 

America  invades  the  other  nations.  The  pulpit 
never  stands  in  front  of  the  cannon.  Who  preached 
against  the  Mexican  War?  How  many  ministers, 
think  you,  out  of  the  twenty-eight  thousand  Protes- 
tant pulpits  ?  Who  will  preach  against  the  present 
national  lust  for  land  ?  Extortioners  levy  their  usury 
to  the  ruin  of  the  borrower,  —  the  pulpit  does  not 
say  a  word  against  it.  Politicians  declare  that  the 
great  object  of  government  is  the  protection  of  prop- 
erty, —  the  pulpit  knows  no  higher  object  for  gov- 
ernment ;  "  take  care  of  the  rich  and  they  will  take 
care  of  the  poor."  Intemperance  floods  the  cities, 
fills  the  Almshouse  and  the  Jail,  —  the  pulpit  says 
but  little :  thank  God,  in  humble  places  it  does  say 
something,  though  the  metropolitan  pulpit  commonly 


160  THE   POPULAIi   THEOLOGY. 

"  hangs  out "  for  Rum.  Licentiousness  mows  down 
the  beauty  of  the  girl,  and  prostitutes  the  manly 
dignity  of  the  man,  —  but  the  pulpit  is  silent  as  the 
house  of  death.  It  has  forgotten  the  book  of  Prov- 
erbs. The  kidnapper  comes  to  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  to  seize  our  fellow  worshippers,  —  and 
most  of  the  churches  are  on  his  side.  In  this  city, 
a  man  fleeing  from  slavery,  seized  by  ruffians  and 
confined  in  our  illegal  jail,  brought  into  most  immi- 
nent peril,  sends  round  his  petition  to  the  churches 
for  their  prayer ;  the  churches  are  dumb ;  eloquent 
ministers  come  out  and  defend  the  stealing  of  men. 
The  American  pulpit  is  powerless  against  sin  :  it  is 
a  dumb  dog  that  cannot  bark  at  the  wolf.  The  great 
Rabbis  of  the  popular  theology  are  on  the  side  of 
every  popular  sin.  What  Roman  augur  ever  op- 
posed a  Roman  sin  ? 

All  over  the  world  woman  is  in  a  state  of  subjec- 
tion to  man,  almost  everywhere  counted  inferior  to 
him,  a  tool  for  his  convenience,  created  only  because 
it  was  "  not  good  for  him  to  be  alone  ; "  throughout 
Christendom  deprived  of  the  ecclesiastical,  political, 
and  academic  rights  or  privileges  of  men,  and  conse- 
quently oppressed  by  the  strong  arm.  What  has 
the  Christian  church  to  say  ? 

Do  not  blame  the  minister  too  much.  He  is  the 
victim  of  his  theological  circumstances,  and  is  com- 
monly a  great  deal  better  than  his  creed.  He  is 
better  than  he  dares  to  preach.     His  theology  tells 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  161 

him  that  religion  is  not  for  the  earth  but  for  heaven ; 
not  to  make  the  world  better,  but  to  get  souls 
saved  from  an  angry  God.  What  he  calls  "  means 
of  Grace  "  are  not  a  diligent  use  of  all  our  facul- 
ties of  body  and  mind,  each  in  its  normal  mode  of 
activity;  but  the  vicarious  sufferings  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  are  the  Divine  Cause,  and  a  belief  in 
the  popular  theology  is  the  Human  Condition;  all 
our  "  righteousnesses  are  as  filthy  rags,"  and  shelter 
no  man  from  the  wrath  of  God  and  the  flames  of 
hell.  It  tells  him  that  the  function  of  the  minister 
is  not  to  promote  piety  and  morality,  but  first,  to 
intercede  with  an  offended  God  for  the  sake  of  an 
offending  people  ;  next,  to  administer  the  sacrament 
of  baptism,  —  to  sprinkle  a  little  water  on  the  face 
of  a  baby,  —  and  of  the  Christian  communion,  —  to 
give  some  men  a  morsel  of  bread  to  eat  and  a  drop 
wine  to  drink  in  the  meeting-house;  and  next  to 
expound  the  Scriptures  according  to  the  standard  of 
his  sect.  That  is  the  ecclesiastical  theological  func- 
tion of  a  minister,  whereby  he  is  "  to  save  souls ; " 
this  he  thinks  is  to  preach  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
So  the  churches  are  not  chiefly  institutions  of  reli- 
gion, to  teach  piety  and  morality ;  but  institutions  of 
theology,  and  are  controlled  not  by  the  blameless 
religion  of  Jesus,  but  by  Theology  and  Mammon. 
In  small  country  towns  where  the  people  are  ruled 
by  the  clergy,  the  churches  are  mainly  controlled  by 
Theology;  and  in  large  wealthy  towns,  where 
14* 


162  THE   POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

another  class  of  men  bears  sway,  they  are  controlled 
chiefly  by  Mammon.  The  church  sitting  on  her  coca- 
trice's  eggs  in  the  one  case,  hatches  mainly  church- 
lings,  and  in  the  other  chiefly  wordlings. 

So  the  churches  are  no  defence  against  political 
tyranny:  they  are  on  its  side;  in  old  England,  New 
England,  France,  Germany,  Russia,  all  through 
Christendom,  the  churches  side  with  despotic  power. 
They  are  no  protection  against  practical  atheism : 
if  the  statesmen  say,  "  There  is  no  Higher  Law," 
the  leading  clergy  answer,  "  Very  true !  there  is 
none."  They  are  no  defence  against  covetousness  : 
the  great  ecclesiastical  teachers  of  Christendom  are 
its  allies.  All  the  popular  vices  are  sure  to  have  the 
churches  on  their  side. 

None  of  the  great  ideas  of  the  times  originate 
with  the  clergy  and  the  church  :  new  thought  is  not 
generated  there.     Theology  keeps 

"  Hawking  at  geology  and  schism/' 

and  hates  new  ideas.  None  of  the  great  sentiments  of 
devotion  to  God  are  cradled  there :  Theology  mum- 
bles its  ritual,  and  scofls  at  the  light  of  Christian 
sentiment.  None  of  the  great  philanthropies  begin 
there :  Theology  is  getting  men  saved  from  future 
torment,  and  kills  philanthropy.  The  temperance 
movement,  the  peace  movement,  the  education  move- 
ment, the  anti-slavery  movement,  the  great  move- 
ment for  the  elevation  of  woman,  the  philanthropy 


TIIE   POPULAR   THEOLOGY.  163 

which  would  heal  the  criminal,  cure  the  sick,  teach 
the  deaf,  dumb,  blind,  and  the  fool,  —  all  these  arc 
foreign  to  the  church  and  the  clergy,  to  the  popular 
theology  which  underlies  both. 

You  know  the  qualities  most  valued  in  a  man 
called  Christian,  in  all  the  sects  of  the  sectarian 
churches :  —  belief  in  all  the  doctrines  of  his  sect ;  a 
devout  attendance  on  all  the  forms  of  his  sect ;  a  sad 
countenance ;  —  much  talk  on  theological  matters ; 
the  reading  of  theological  books.  That  makes  up 
what  is  called  Christianity.  Do  you  think  that 
Jesus  would  recognize  such  things  as  "  the  essen- 
tials of  religion  "  in  one  of  his  followers  ? 

How  would  you  judge  of  the  health  of  a  man 
who  proceeded  in  that  way ;  a  man  who  was  thick 
with  the  doctors,  who  was  always  puddering  with 
medicine,  and  reading  medical  treatises,  and  ever- 
lastingly in  a  fuss  about  his  head,  or  his  heart,  or 
his  stomach, — his  digestion,  or  his  circulation? 
Would  you  think  that  was  a  proof  that  he  was  sound 
and  healthy  ?  The  doctors  might  say  he  was  a  very 
good  patient,  but  a  very  silly  man. 

A  celebrated  clergyman  of  America  once  preached 
a  funeral  sermon  on  a  distinguished  statesman  then 
lately  deceased.  The  minister  claimed  the  politician 
as  an  exemplary  follower  of  Christ,  "  He  had  full 
faith  in  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  Gospel."  What 
do  you  think  they  were  ?  Jesus  of  Nazareth  would 
be  a  little  amazed  to  hear :  "  the  sinfulness  of  man ; 


164  THE  POPULAH  THEOLOGY. 

the  divinity  of  Christ;  the  necessity  of  his  atone- 
ment ;  need  of  being  born  again,  and  that  his  own 
personal  hope  of  salvation  depended  on  the  promises 
and  grace  of  Christ,  and  that  he  now  V\dshed  to  throw 
himself  upon  it  as  a  practical  and  blessed  remedy." 
That  was  what  a  Doctor  of  Divinity  took  for  proof 
that  a  famous  American  statesman,  almost  eighty 
years  old,  was  a  Christian.  He  did  not  ask  for  piety, 
not  for  morality,  only  for  a  belief  in  these  doctrines 
of  the  popular  theology. 

If  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  to  come  back,  and  bear 
the  same  relation  to  the  nineteenth  century  which 
he  bore  so  blessedly  to  the  first,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  first  thing  he  would  preach  against  is  what  is 
called  "Christianity"  in  these  days;  —  I  mean  the 
Theology  of  Christendom. 

This  theology  is  the  greatest  evil  of  our  times.  It 
stands  in  the  way  of  the  emancipation  of  man.  It 
defends  the  despotism  of  the  Church,  and  the  des- 
potism of  the  State,  the  despotism  of  the  noble  over 
the  proletary  in  Europe,  of  the  master  over  the  slave 
in  America,  of  the  capitalist  over  the  laborer,  of  the 
rich  over  the  poor,  of  the  learned  over  the  ignorant, 
and  last  of  all,  the  despotism  of  man  over  woman. 
It  is  a  lion  in  the  path  of  mankind. 

This  theology  rests  on  two  great  pillars  as  its  foun- 
dation, the  Jachin  and  Boaz  of  theology. 

I.  That  God  is  finite  in  his  wisdom,  justice,  love, 
and  holiness  —  only  infinite  in  power  to  damn  ;  that 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  165 

He  is  a  jealous,  angry,  and  revengeful  God,  with 
eternal  hell  behind  Him,  wherein  He  will  torture  for- 
ever the  vast  majority  of  his  children,  and  that  man 
is  wicked  by  nature,  subject  to  the  wrath  of  God, 
and  utterly  incapable,  by  his  own  efforts,  of  escaping 
from  it. 

II.  That  Christ  has  made  an  atonement  for  the 
sin  of  the  world,  and  by  his  sufferings  and  death  has 
mitigated  the  anger  of  the  Jealous  God  who  has 
given  a  conditional  pardon  of  sin  and  promise  of 
salvation,  and  that  the  condition  of  this  Salvation  is  a 
beUef  in  the  popular  theology,  —  which  is  commonly 
called  Faith,  "  faith  in  Christ,"  and  "  faith  in  God," 
—  and  a  compliance  with  the  ritual  of  the  chm-ch. 

This  Theology  makes  man  a  worm;  religion  a 
torment  to  all  but  ten  in  a  million ;  immortality  a 
curse  to  mankind ;  God  a  devil  omnipotent  to  damn, 
and  his  rule  in  time  and  eternity  the  most  selfish 
despotism  which  the  world  ever  knew. 


This  Theology  is  not  always  to  last :  it  is  in 
the  process  of  dissolution  —  there  is  dry  rot  in  its 
limbs.  Philosophy  shows  there  is  no  such  dreadful 
God  ;  criticism  that  there  is  no  such  atoning  sacrifice 
to  appease  imaginary  wrath,  no  need  of  such  belief, 
or  of  such  compliance ;  consciousness  knows  no 
such  human  nature  as  the  popular  theology  pro- 
claims.     No,   we    are    all    conscious    of   a   nature 


166  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

quite  different  from  that.  Yea,  O  Father  in  Heaven, 
thou  hast  written  of  Thyself  on  the  walls  of  human 
consciousness,  and  we  feel  Thee  in  our  heart,  with  all 
thy  Infinite  Wisdom,  Justice,  Love,  and  Holiness. 

This  dark  theology  must  pass  away. 

It  is  at  this  day  in  the  same  condition  that  Juda- 
ism and  Paganism  were  in  Christ's  time.  Then  the 
great  priests  were  Pagans  or  Jews  ;  the  great  philos- 
ophers, the  great  philanthropists,  were  neither  Jew 
nor  Pagan.  Now  the  great  priests  are  theological 
Christians,  the  great  philosophers  far  otherw^ise. 
The  new  bud  is  crowding  off  the  old  leaf.  The 
great  hearts  have  no  confidence  in  this  theology ;  the 
great  heads  have  no  confidence  in  it;  the  great 
hands  have  no  confidence  in  it.  The  social  aristoc- 
racy of  England  seems  false  to  religion.  A  writer, 
one  of  the  learnedest  men  in  Europe,  himself  really 
religious,  declares  that  since  the  breaking  up  of  Pa- 
ganism there  has  never  been  such  a  decline  of  reli- 
gion in  Europe  as  at  this  day.  Another  not  at  all 
bigoted  declares  that  in  England  the  foremost  classes 
of  the  people, — men  of  birth  and  riches,  —  have  no 
regard  for  religion.  The  laboring  men  whose  daily 
toil  hardly  fills  their  mouths  and  satisfies  their  hun- 
ger, —  they  also  have  small  confidence  in  it.  The  in- 
tellectual aristocracy  of  France  and  Germany  have 
mainly  turned  their  faces  not  only  against  this  theol- 
ogy, but  against  conscious  religion  itself 

"Well,  how  much  of  religion  is  there  in  America  ? 


THE    rOPULAR   TIIEOLOCY.  167 

Ask  the  twenty-eight  thousand  ministers :  ask  the 
three  million,  three  hundred  thousand  church-mem- 
bers that  question  :  then  let  the  three  million,  three 
hundred  thousand  slaves  give  answer  to  the  question. 
"  The  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full  of  the  habita- 
tions of  cruelty ;  "  the  American  pulpit  knows  it,  and 
defends  the  cruelty  and  the  darkness  of  the  dark 
places  of  the  earth.  Ask  the  politician  who  says 
there  is  no  Higher  Law  for  the  state ;  ask  the  trader 
who  says  there  is  no  Higher  Law  for  business,  and 
who  wishes  to  sign  off  from  religion,  each  in  his  pe- 
culiar vocation,  —  ask  them  what  respect  there  is  for 
religion  in  America ! 

You  and  I,  my  friends,  live  in  an  age  when  man- 
kind has  outgrown  the  popular  theology.  God  be 
thanked!  we  have  outgrown  its  idea  of  God, 
its  idea  of  man,  and  its  idea  of  religion.  Hence 
comes  the  confusion  of  the  times ;  hence  the 
denial  of  religion  in  politics,  in  trade.  We  live  in 
an  age  of  transition.  The  old  theology  will  pass 
away ;  depend  upon  it,  it  will  pass  away.  Philoso- 
phers have  destroyed  its  philosophical  basis,  critics 
have  destroyed  its  historical  basis,  and  it  swings  in 
the  air  at  both  ends.     That  must  pass  away. 

But  Religion,  —  that  will  not  fade  out  of  the 
human  heart :  sooner  shall  yonder  sun,  which  those 
clouds  only  hide,  fade  out  of  heaven.  No !  with 
every  advance  of  man  religion  shines  brighter  and 
brighter,  leading  onward  to  its  perfect  day.     Out  of 


168  THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY. 

this  chaos  ^of  theology,  how  beautifully  comes  up 
the  manly  and  mild  and  trusting  face  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth !  Far  off,  severed  from  us  by  two  thou- 
sand years  of  time,  and  five  thousand  miles  of  space, 
we  see  him  with  his  beatitudes,  his  parable  of  the 
Good  Samaritan,  of  the  Father  who  went  after  his 
prodigal  son,  having  more  joy  in  his  heaven  over 
the  one  sinner  that  repented  than  over  the  ninety  and 
nine  that  never  went  astray.  How  beautifully 
comes  up  that  young  Nazarene,  proclaiming  the  one 
religion,  —  love  to  the  Father,  and  love  to  the  Son 
—  to  Man  here  on  the  earth,  for  mankind  is  the  Son 
of  God ! 

Coming  out  of  the  popular  theology,  I  feel  as  one 
who  has  wandered  long  in  some  dark,  subterranean, 
mammoth  cave,  where  the  sound  of  running  water 
was  thunderous  and  sad,  —  lit  by  uncertain  torches, 
led  by  wandering  guides,  —  where  lifeless  stones 
grinned  as  horrible  monsters  at  him,  and  he  hesitated 
and  stumbled  at  every  step,  —  where  the  air  was 
contaminated  by  the  smoke  of  the  torches,  and  his 
steps  faltered  and  his  heart 'sank.  I  feel  as  one 
coming  out  into  the  glad  light  of  day,  where  the 
sky  is  blue  over  me,  and  the  sun  sheds  down  its 
golden  light,  and  the  ground  is  green  with  grass,  and 
is  beautiful  with  summer  or  with  autumn  flowers, 
fragrant  to  every  sense. 

God  be  thanked  that  we  leave  tlie  cavern  behind 
us,  with  its  smoky  lights,  its  paths  that  lead  to  wan- 


THE  POPULAR  THEOLOGY.  169 

dering;  that  God's  heaven  is  over  us  and  his  ground 
is  under  our  feet,  his  eternity  is  before  us,  and  his 
Spirit  in  our  spirit. 

"Oh  ye,  who  piued  in  dungeons  for  the  sake 

Of  Truth  wliich  tyrants  shadowed  with  their  hate, 
Wliose  only  crime  was  that  ye  were  awake 

Too  soon,  or  that  your  brethren  slept  too  late ; 
Mountainous  minds,  upon  whose  top  the  great 
Sunrise  of  knowledge  came,  long  e'er  its  glance 
Fell  on  the  foggy  swamps  of  fear  and  ignorance  ; 

"  The  time  shall  come  when  from  your  heights  serene. 
Beyond  the  grave,  ye  will  look  back  and  smile. 
To  see  the  plains  of  earth  all  growing  green, 

Where  Science,  Art,  and  Love  repeat  Heaven's  style, 
And  with  God's  beauty  fill  the  desert  isle, 
'  Till  Eden  blooms  where  martyr-fires  have  burned. 
And  to  the  Lord  of  life  all  hearts  and  minds  are  turned. 

"  The  seeds  are  planted,  and  the  spring  is  near ; 

Ages  of  blight  are  but  a  fleeting  frost : 
Truth  circles  into  Truth.     Each  mote  is  dear 

To  God,  no  drop  of  Ocean  is  e'er  lost, 

No  leaf  forever  dry  and  tempest-tost. 
Life  centres  deathless  underneath  Decay 
And  no  true  Word  or  Deed  can  ever  pass  away." 


15 


V. 


OF  SPECULATIVE   THEISM,  REGARDED  AS  A 
THEOEY  OF  THE  UNIVERSE. 


ARE   NOT   TWO    SPARROWS    SOLD    FOR    A    FARTHING  ?    AND    ONE    OF 
THEM     SHALL     NOT     FALL     ON      THE       GROUND     WITHOUT     TOUR 

FATHER.  —  Matthew  X.  29. 

On  the  last  four  Sundays  I  spoke  of  Atheism, 
regarded  first  as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe,  and  then 
as  a  Principle  of  Ethics  ;  next  of  the  popular  Chris- 
tian Theology,  also  regarded  first  as  a  Theory  of  the 
-XJniverse,  and  then  as  a  Principle  of  Ethics.  I  have 
spoken  of  each,  first  as  metaphysics,  then  ethics  ;  as 
theory  first,  and  then  as  practice.  Both  subjects 
were  painful  to  touch,  yet  needing  to  be  handled  at 
this  day.  It  is  never  pleasant  to  point  out  and 
expose  a  false  theory  of  philosophy,  or  a  false  system 
of  practice,  and  I  am  glad  I  have  passed  by  that  for 
the  present.  A  good  man  hates  to  kill  any  thing, — 
even  snakes  and  hyaenas. 

I  now  come  to  a  theme  much  more  pleasant: 
namely,  the  Philosophical  Idea  of  God.     So  I  ask 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  171 

your  attention  to  a  sermon  of  Speculative  Theism, 
considered  as  a  Theory  of  the  Universe  ;  and  next 
Sunday  I  hope  to  speak  of  Theism  considered  as  a 
Principle  of  Practice.  If  what  I  have  to  say  this 
morning  be  somewhat  abstract  and  metaphysical, 
and  closely  joined  together,  and  rather  hard  to  follovv^, 
I  beg  you  will  remember  that  it  belongs  to  the  nature 
of  the  subject,  which  I  shall  treat  as  well  as  I  can, 
and  as  plain  as  I  may. 

I  use  the  word  Theism,  first,  as  distinguished  from 
Atheism  ;  that  is,  from  the  absolute  denial  of  all  pos- 
sible ideas  of  God.  Second,  as  distinguished  from 
the  Popular  theology,  which  indeed  affirms  God,  but 
ascribes  to  Him  a  finite  character,  and  makes  Him  a 
ferocious  God.  And  third,  as  distinguished  from 
Deism,  which  affirms  a  God  without  the  ferocious 
character  of  the  popular  theology,  but  still  starts 
from  the  sensational  philosophy,  abuts  in  materiafism, 
derives  its  idea  of  God  solely  by  induction  from  the 
phenomena  of  material  nature,  or  of  human  history, 
leaving  out  of  sight  the  intuition  of  human  nature  ; 
and  so  gets  its  idea  of  God  solely  from  observation, 
and  not  at  all  from  consciousness,  and  thus  accord- 
ingly, represents  God  as  finite  and  imperfect.  I  use 
the  word  as  distinguished  from  Atheism,  the  denial 
of  God ;  from  the  Popular  Theology,  which  affirms 
a   finite   ferocious    God;    and   from    Deism,   which 


172  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

affirms  a  finite  God  without  ferocity.     So  much  for 
the  definition  of  terms. 

Some  of  you  may  perhaps  remember  the  introduc- 
tory sermon  of  last  year's  course,  treating  of  the 
Infinite  Perfection  of  God.  In  that  sermon  I  started 
from  human  nature,  from  the  facts  of  consciousness 
in  your  heart  and  in  my  heart,  assuming  only  the 
£delity  of  the  human  faculties,  their  power  to  ascer- 
tain truth  in  religious  matters,  as  in  philosophical 
and  mathematical  matters  ;  and  I  showed,  or  think  I 
showed,  that  those  faculties  of  human  nature  —  the 
intellectual,  the  moral,  the  afFectional,  and  the  simply 
religious  —  in  their  joint  and  normal  exercise,  led  to 
the  idea  of  God  as  a  Being  infinitely  powerful,  infi- 
nitely wise,  infinitely  just,  infinitely  loving,  and  infi- 
nitely holy,  that  is,  faithful  to  Himself. 

To-day  I  start  with  that  conclusion  as  a  fact.  I 
shall  not  undertake  to  prove  the  actuality  of  this 
idea,  —  the  existence  of  the  infinite  God;  I  shall 
take  it  for  granted.  I  did  not  undertake  to  prove 
the  existence  of  a  God  against  Atheism ;  nor  the  non- 
existence of  the  ferocious  God  against  the  Popular 
Theology.  At  this  stage  of  proceeding  I  shall 
assume  the  existence  of  the  Infinite  God,  relying 
for  proof  on  what  has  been  said  so  often  before,  and 
still  more,  on  what  is  felt  in  your  consciousness, 
without  my  saying  any  thing.     Only  for  clearness 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  173 

of  conception,  let  me  state  some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant matters  connected  with  the  idea  of  God. 

I.  There  must  be  many  qualities  of  God  not 
at  all  known  to  men,  some  of  them  not  at  all 
knowable  by  us ;  because  we  have  not  the  faculties 
to  know  them  by.  Man's  consciousness  of  God, 
and  God's  consciousness  of  Himself  must  differ 
immeasurably.  God's  conception  of  Himself  must 
differ  as  much  from  our  conception  of  Him,  as  the 
constellation  called  the  Great  Bear  differs  from  one 
of  the  beasts  in  the  public  den  at  Berne.  For  no 
man  can  ever  have  an  exhaustive  conception  of  God, 
—  one  I  mean  which  uses  up  and  comprises  the 
whole  of  God.  We  have  scarcely  an  exhaustive 
conception  of  any  thing.  Certain  properties  and 
forces  of  things  we  know ;  substances  of  things  are 
almost,  if  not  quite  beyond  our  ken.  But  we  may 
have  such  an  idea  of  God  as  though  incomplete,  is 
perfectly  true,  and  comprises  no  quality  which  is  not 
also  a  quality  of  God.  Then  our  idea  of  God  is 
true  as  far  as  it  goes,  only  it  does  not  describe  the 
whole  of  God.  To  illustrate  this,  —  a  thimble  can- 
not contain  all  the  water  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  at 
once,  but  it  may  be  brimful  of  water  from  the  Atlan- 
tic Ocean ;  and  it  may  contain  nothing  but  water 
from  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  So  our  idea  of  God, 
though  not  containing  the  whole  of  Him,  may  yet 
comprise  no  quality  which  is  not  a  quality  of  God, 
15* 


174  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

and  may  omit  none  which  it  is  needful  for  our  wel- 
fare, that  we  should  know.  In  the  self-conscious- 
ness of  God  subject  and  object  are  the  same,  and 
He  must  know  all  his  own  Infinite  Nature.  But  in 
our  consciousness  of  God  the  limitations  of  the 
finite  subject  make  it  impossible  that  we  should 
comprehend  God  as  He  is  conscious  of  Himself.  It 
is  enough  for  us  to  know  of  the  Infinite  what  is 
knowable  to  finite  man. 

With  qualities  not  knowable  to  us  I  have  nothing 
to  do.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  discuss  the  psychol- 
ogy and  metaphysics  of  God.  The  metaphysics  of 
man  are  quite  hard  enough  for  me  to  gi'apple  with 
and  understand. 

II.  Then  as  a  next  thing,  God  must  be  different 
in  kind  from  what  I  call  the  Universe ;  that  is  from 
Nature,  the  world  of  matter,  and  from  Spii'it,  the 
world  of  man.  They  are  finite.  He  infinite;  they 
dependent.  He  self-subsisting  ;  they  variable.  He  un- 
changing. God  must  include  both,  matter  and 
spirit. 

There  are  two  classes  of  philosophers  often  called 
Atheists;  but  better,  and  perhaps  justly,  called 
Pantheists. 

One  of  these  says,  "  there  are  only  material  things 
in  existence,"  resolving  all  into  matter ;  "  The  sum 
total  of  these  material  things  is  God."  That  is 
material  Pantheism.     If  I  mistake  not  M.  Comte  of 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  175 

Paris,  and  the  anonymous  author  of  the  "  Vestiges 
of  the  Natural  History  of  Creation,"  with  their  nu- 
merous coadjutors  belong  to  that  class. 

The  other  class  admits  the  existence  of  spirit, 
sometimes  resolves  every  thing  into  spirit,  and  says, 
"  the  sum  total  of  finite  spirit,  that  is  God."  These 
are  spiritual  Pantheists.  Several  of  the  German 
philosophers,  if  I  understand  them,  are  of  that  stamp. 

One  difficulty  with  both  of  these  classes  is  this  : 
Their  idea  of  God  is  only  the  idea  of  the  world  of 
Nature  and  of  Spirit,  as  it  is  to-day ;  and  as  the 
world  of  Nature  and  of  Spirit  will  be  fairer  and 
w^iser  a  thousand  years  hence  than  it  is  now,  so,  ac- 
cording to  them,  God  will  be  fairer  and  wiser  a 
thousand  years  hence  than  He  is  now.  Thus  they 
give  you  a  variable  God,  who  learns  by  experience, 
and  who  grows  with  the  growth  and  strengthens 
with  the  strength  of  the  universe  itself.  According 
to  them,  when  there  was  no  vegetation  in  the 
world  of  matter,  God  knew  nothing  of  a  plant; 
no  more  than  the  stones  on  the  earth.  When 
the  animal  came,  when  man  came,  God  was 
wiser,  and  He  advances  with  the  advance  of  man. 
When  Jesus  came,  He  was  a  better  God ;  He  was 
a  wiser  God,  after  Newton  and  La  Place,  and  was 
more  a  philosophical  Being,  after  those  pantheistic 
philosophers  had  taught  Him  the  way  to  be  so ;  for 
their  God  knows  nothing  until  it  is  either  a  fact  of 
observation  in  finite  Nature  —  in  the  material  world, 


176  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

—  or  else  a  fact  of  consciousness  in  finite  Spirit  — 
in  some  man  ;  He  knows  nothing  till  it  is  shown 
Him.  That  is  a  fatal  error  with  Hegel  and  his 
followers  in  England  and  America. 

Mr.  Babbage,  a  most  ingenious  Englishman,  in- 
vented a  calculating  engine.  He  builded  wiser  than 
he  knew ;  for  by  and  by  he  found  that  his  engine 
calculated  conclusions  which  had  never  entered  into 
the  thought  of  Mr.  Babbage  himself.  The  mathe- 
matical engine  out-cyphered  its  inventor.  And  these 
men  represent  God  as  being  in  just  that  predicament. 
The  world  is  constantly  revealing  things  unknown 
before,  and  which  God  had  not  conceived  of  As 
there  is  a  progressive  development  of  the  powers  of 
the  Universe  as  a  whole,  and  of  each  man,  so  there 
is  a  progressive  development  of  God.  He  is  there- 
fore not  so  much  a  Being,  as  a  Becoming. 

This  idea  of  a  progressive  Deity  is  not  wholly  a 
a  new  thing.  The  doctrine  was  obscurely  held  by 
some  of  the  ancient  philosophers  in  the  time  of 
Plato. 

If  God  be  Infinite,  then  He  must  be  immanent, 
perfectly  and  totally  present,  in  Nature  and  in  Spirit. 
Thus  there  is  no  point  of  space,  no  atom  of  matter, 
but  God  is  there ;  no  point  of  spirit,  and  no  atom  of 
soul,  but  God  is  there.  And  yet  finite  matter  and 
finite  spirit  do  not  exhaust  God.  He  transcends  the 
world  of  matter  and  of  spirit;  and  in  virtue  of  that 
transcendence  continually  makes  the  world  of  mat- 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  177 

ter  fairer,  and  the  world  of  spirit  wiser.  So  there 
is  really  a  progress  in  the  manifestation  of  God,  not 
a  progress  in  God  the  manifesting.  In  thought 
you  may  annihilate  the  world  of  matter  and  of 
man ;  but  you  do  not  thereby  in  thought  annihilate 
the  infinite  God,  or  subtract  any  thing  from  the 
existence  of  God.  In  thought  you  may  double  the 
world  of  matter  and  of  man ;  but  in  so  doing  you 
do  not  in  thought  double  the  Being  of  the  Infinite 
God ;  that  remains  the  same  as  before. 

That  is  what  I  mean  when  I  say  that  God  is 
infinite  and  transcends  matter  and  spirit,  and  is 
different  in  kind  from  the  finite  universe.  This 
is  the  great  point  in  which  I  differ  most  widely  from 
those  philosophers.  I  find  no  fault  with  them.  I 
differ  from  their  conclusion. 

III.  As  a  third  thing,  the  Infinite  God  must  have 
all  the  qualities  of  a  perfect  and  complete  Being; 
must  be  complete  in  the  qualities  of  a  perfect  being, 
perfect  in  the  qualities  of  a  complete  one.  To  state 
that  by  analysis  which  I  have  just  stated  by  syn- 
thesis, He  must  have  the  perfection  of  Being,  self- 
existence;  the  perfection  of  Power,  almightiness ; 
the  perfection  of  Mind,  all-knowingness ;  the  perfec- 
tion of  Conscience,  all-righteousness;  of  Affection, 
all-lovingness  ;  of  Soul,  all-holiness,  perfect  self-fidel- 
ity. Hence,  as  the  result  of  all  these.  He  must  have 
the  perfection  of  Will,  absolute  freedom.     I  mean 


178  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

to  say,  according  to  this  idea  of  God,  there  must  be 
no  limitation  to  his  existence,  his  power,  his  wis- 
dom, his  justice,  his  love,  his  holiness,  and  his  free- 
dom ;  none  from  any  outward  cause,  or  any  inward 
cause  whatsoever.  The  classic,  or  Greek  and  Ro- 
man Idea  of  God,  represented  Him  as  finite,  limited 
subjectively  by  elements  of  his  own  character,  ob- 
jectively limited  by  the  elements  of  the  material 
world;  the  popular  theological  idea  in  fact  repre- 
sents him  as  finite,  limited  subjectively  by  selfish- 
ness, wrath,  and  various  evil  passions,  objectively 
by  elements  in  the  world  of  man  which  continually 
prove  refractory,  and  turn  out  as  He  did  not  intend. 
In  this  matter  of  the  Infinity  of  God,  I  differ  from 
the  popular  theology,  as  well  as  from  the  common 
scheme  of  philosophy. 

So  much  for  the  idea  of  God  considered  as  Infin- 
ite. So  much  for  its  diversity  from  the  common 
schemes. 


Now  look  at  this  philosophical  Theism,  with  its 
Idea  of  the  Infinite  God,  as  a  Theory  of  the  Uni- 
verse. Let  me  divide  the  universe  into  two  great 
parts.  One  I  will  call  the  World  of  Matter,  and 
the  other  the  "World  of  Spirit.  By  the  world  of 
matter  I  mean  every  thing,  except  the  Deity,  known 
to  us  that  is  not  man ;  and  by  the  world  of  spirit  I 
mean  what  is  man, — both  man  in  his  material  sub- 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  179 

stance,  and  in  his  spiritual  substance.  Let  me  say  a 
word  of  each.  For  shortness'  sake,  I  will  call  the 
world  of  matter  Nature.  I  begin  with  this,  as  it  is 
the  least  difficult. 

In  Nature  God  must  be  both  a  perfect  Cause, 
and  a  perfect  Providence. 

I.  Of  God  as  perfect  Cause.  Creation  itself,  the 
non-existent  coming  into  existence,  is  something 
unintelligible  to  us.  But  this  we  know,  that  the 
Infinite  God  must  be  a  perfect  Creator,  the  sole  and 
undisturbed  author  of  all  that  is  in  Nature.  So 
there  must  be  a  complete  and  perfect  harmony  and 
concord  between  God  and  the  Nature  which  He 
creates,  God  and  his  works  must  be  at  one;  and 
Nature,  so  far  as  it  goes,  must  represent  the  will 
and  purpose  of  God,  and  nothing  but  the  will  and 
purpose  of  God.  So,  there  can  be  nothing  in  Na- 
ture which  God  did  not  put  in  Nature  from  Him- 
self. 

Well,  God  must  have  made  Nature  first,  from  a 
perfect  Motive ;  next,  of  perfect  Material ;  third,  for 
a  perfect  Purpose  or  end ;  fourth,  as  perfect  Means 
to  achieve  that  purpose.  That  is — the  motive  for 
creation,  the  purpose  of  creation,  must  be  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  infinity  of  God ;  in  harmony  with 
His  infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  love,  and  holi- 
ness :  the  material  of  Nature,  and  the  means  therein, 
with  the  constant  modes  of  operation  thereof — the 


180  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

Laws  of  Nature,  —  must  be  perfectly  adequate  to 
the  perfect  purpose,  and  so  must  be  in  complete  har- 
mony with  the  Infinite  God ;  with  his  infinite  power, 
infinite  wisdom,  justice,  love,  and  holiness.  That  is 
very  plain,  following  unavoidably  from  the  Idea  of 
God  as  Infinite. 

Now  a  perfect  Motive  for  creation,  —  what  will 
that  be  ?  It  must  be  absolute  Love  producing  a 
desire  to  bless  every  thing  which  He  creates ;  that  is, 
a  desire  to  confer  such  a  form  and  degree  of  welfare 
on  each  thing  which  He  makes  as  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  character  and  nature  of  that  thing 
made ;  that  is,  its  highest  form  and  degree  of  wel- 
fare.    Absolute  Love  is  a  perfect  motive. 

A  perfect  Purpose  or  end  of  creation  is  the 
achievement  of  that  bliss ;  not  the  achievement 
thereof  to-day,  but  ultimately.  Perfect  material  and 
means  are  those  which  perfectly  achieve  that  pur- 
pose ;  not  to-day,  or  when  I  will,  or  when  the  thing 
created  wills,  but  when  the  infinite  wisdom  and  love 
of  God  wills. 

The  Infinite  God  must  create  all  from  a  perfect 
motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  of  perfect  material,  as 
perfect  means  ;  for  you  cannot  conceive  of  a  God 
infinitely  powerful,  wise,  just,  loving,  and  holy,  creat- 
ing any  thing  from  an  evil  motive,  for  an  evil  purpose, 
from  evil  material,  or  as  evil  means.  No  more  can 
you  conceive  of  the  Infinite  God  creating  any  thing 
from  an  imperfect  motive,  for  an  imperfect  purpose, 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  181 

of  imperfect  matcriiil,  or  as  imperfect  means.  Each 
of  these  suppositions  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  the 
idea  of  the  Infinite  God ;  for  He  can  have  only  per- 
fect motives,  perfect  purposes,  perfect  material,  and 
perfect  means  to  create  out  of,  and  to  create  by. 
This  being  so,  you  see  that  the  selfishness  and  de- 
structiveness  ascribed  to  God  in  the  popular  theol- 
ogy are  at  once  struck  out  of  existence.  For  such- 
selfishness  and  destructiveness  are  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  the  Infinite  God. 

11.  Next,  of  God  as  perfect  Providence.  Creation 
and  Providence  are  but  modifications  of  the  same 
function.  Creation  is  momentary  providence ;  prov- 
idence, perpetual  creation.  One  is  described  by  a 
point;  the  other  by  a  line.  Now  God  is  just  as 
much  present  in  a  blade  of  grass,  or  an  atom  of 
mahogany,  this  day  and  in  every  moment  of  its 
existence,  as  He  was  at  the  instant  of  its  creation. 
Men  say,  "  When  God  created  matter  He  was  pre- 
sent therein."  Very  true!  but  He  is  just  as  present 
therein,  with  all  his  powers,  and  just  as  active  with 
all  his  perfections,  at  every  moment  while  that  mat- 
ter exists,  as  He  was  when  it  was  first  created.  INIen 
tell  us,  when  they  read  the  Bible,  how  grand  it  must 
have  been  to  have  stood  in  the  presence  of  God  when 
Moses  miraculously  smote  the  rock,  which  gushed 
with  miraculous  water.  But  every  drop  of  water, 
16 


182  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

which  falls  from  my  roof  in  a  shower,  or  from  my 
finger,  thus,  has  as  much  the  presence  of  God  in  it  as 
when,  in  Biblical  phrase,  "  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  the  Sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,"  at 
the  creation  of  water  itself.  It  cannot  be  created 
without    God  ;  it  cannot  subsist  without  God. 

Here,  too,  in  His  Providence,  the  motive,  the  end, 
the  material  and  means,  must  be  infinitely  perfect. 
Let  me  develop  this  a  moment. 

God  at  the  creation  must  have  known  the  action 
and  history  of  each  thing  which  He  called  into  being 
just  as  well  as  He  knows  it  now;  for  God's  knowl- 
edge is  not  a  becoming  wiser  by  experience,  but  a 
being  wise  by  nature.  The  Infinite  God  must  know 
every  movement  of  every  particle  of  matter.  We 
generally  assent  to  that  in  the  gross,  and  reject  it  in 
the  detaik     Let  me  give  an  example. 

All  the  powers,  and  consequently  all  the  action, 
movements,  and  history  of  the  whole  Universe  of 
matter,  whereof  this  solar  system  is  a  part,  a 
single  — 

"Branch  of  Stars  we  see, 
Hung  in  the  goklcu  galaxy." 

All  the  powers,  actions,  movements,  and  history  of 
the  solar  system  itself,  of  its  primaries  and  seconda- 
ries, must  have  been  completely  and  perfectly  known 
to  God  before  the  universe,  or  any  single  "  branch  of 
stars,"  had  its  existence.     So  the  powers  and  conse- 


SPECULATIVE    THEISM.  183 

quent  history  and  movement  of  every  particular 
thing  on  each  of  these  orbs  must  have  been  known. 
The  action  and  history  of  the  mineral  matter  on  the 
earth  in  its  inorganic  form,  in  the  form  of  crystal, 
liquid,  gas;  —  the  action  and  history  of  vegetable 
matter,  in  the  fucus  the  lichen  and  the  tree ;  —  and 
so  of  animal  matter,  in  the  mollusk,  the  eagle  and 
the  elephant,  —  all  must  have  been  completely  and 
perfectly  known  by  God  before  their  creation  ;  eter- 
nally known  to  Him.  The  powers,  and  so  the  history, 
of  each  atom  in  Nature  must  have  been  as  thor- 
oughly known  to  the  Mind  of  the  Universe  a  mil- 
lion of  million  of  years  ago,  as  at  this  day  ;  in  their 
cause  as  well  as  by  their  effects. 

For  example,  God  must  have  known,  at  the 
moment  of  creation,  the  present  position  of  this 
crescent  moon  which  beautifies  the  early  evening 
hour ;  and  He  must  have  known,  too,  the  history  of 
these  molecules  of  carbon  that  make  up  the  cotton 
thread  which  binds  the  sheets  of  this  sermon 
together. 

To  say  it  short,  the  statics  and  dynamics  of  the 
universe,  and  of  each  atom  thereof,  must  have  been 
eternally  and  thoroughly  known  to  God.  And  each 
atom  with  its  statical  and  dynamical  powers,  —  the 
mineral,  vegetable,  and  animal  forces  of  the  universe 
—  must  have  been  created  by  Him,  from  perfect  mo- 
tives, of  perfect  material,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  and 
as   perfect   means ;    they  must   be  continually   sus- 


184  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

tained  by  Him,  and  He  must  be  just  as  present  and 
just  as  active  in  each  moment  of  the  existence  of 
any  one  of  these  things  as  at  the  creation  thereof,  or 
at  the  creation  of  the  all  of  things.  So,  then,  each 
of  these  must  have  been  created  with  a  perfect 
knowledge  of  its  powers,  actions,  movements,  and 
history,  and  created  from  love  as  motive,  for  ultimate 
good  as  purpose,  of  materials  proportionate  to  the  mo- 
tive, and  so  adequate  to  the  end,  and  accordingly  pro- 
vided with  the  means  of  accomplishing  that  purpose  ; 
for  the  infinite  perfection  of  God  would  allow  no  abso- 
lute evil,  no  absolute  imperfection,  in  his  motive,  or 
his  material,  in  his  purpose,  or  his  means.  If  there 
were  any  such  absolute  evil  or  imperfection  in  the 
created,  it  could  only  have  come  from  an  absolute 
evil  or  imperfection  in  the  Creator  ;  that  is,  from  a 
lack  of  infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  or  love  —  be- 
cause God  had  not  love  enough  to  wish  all  things 
well ;  or  justice  enough  to  will  them  well ;  or  wis- 
dom enough  to  contrive  them  well ;  or  power 
enough  to  make  them  well. 

Each  thing  which  God  has  made  has  a  Right  to 
be  created  from  perfect  motives,  for  a  perfect  pur- 
pose, from  perfect  material,  and  as  perfect  means ; 
and  a  right,  also,  to  be  perfectly  provided  for.  I 
know,  to  some  men  it  will  sound  irreverent  to  speak 
of  the  Kight  of  the  created  in  relation  to  the  Crea- 
tor, and  of  the  consequent  Duty  and  Obligation  of 
the    Creator  in    relation    to  the    created.     But   the 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  185 

Infinite  God  is  infinitely  just,  and  it  is  with  the 
highest  reverence  that  I  ask,  Shall  not  the  God  of 
all  the  earth  do  right  ?  It  is  the  highest  reverence 
for  the  €reator  to  say  that  He  gives  his  creatures  a 
Right  to  Him,  to  Him  as  infinite  Cause,  to  Him  as 
infinite  Providence ;  and  I  count  it  impious  to  say 
that  God  has  a  right  to  create  even  a  worm  from 
imperfect  motives,  for  an  imperfect  purpose,  of  im- 
perfect material,  as  imperfect  means.  This  right  of 
the  creature  depends  on  the  nature  of  the  thing,  on 
its  quality  as  a  creation  of  the  infinite  God ;  not  on 
the  quantity  of  being  it  has  received  from  Him.  So 
of  course  it  is  equal  in  all ;  the  same  in  the  smallest 
•'  motes  that  people  the  sunbeams,"  and  the  greatest 
man  ;  all  have  a  birthright  to  the  perfect  Providence 
of  the  Infinite  God ;  an  unalienable  right  to  protec- 
tion by  his  infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  love,  and 
holiness.  This  lien  on  the  infinity  of  God  vests  in 
the  substance  of  their  finite  nature,  and  is  not  to  be 
voided  by  any  accident  of  their  history,  for  that 
accident  must  have  been  known  and  provided  for  as 
one  of  the  consequences  of  their  powers.  Each  thing 
has  the  infinite  perfection  of  God  as  guarantee  to 
that  right.  God  is  security  for  the  universe,  and 
His  hand  is  endorsed  on  every  great  and  little  thing 
which  He  has  made.  Then,  if  am  sure  of  God  and 
his  infinity,  I  am  sure  beforehand  of  the  ultimate 
welfare  of  every  thing  which  God  has  made,  for  the 
16* 


186  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

Infinite  Father  is  the  pledge  and  collateral  security, 
the  endorser  therefor. 

We  cannot  comprehend  the  details  of  this  Provi- 
dence, more  than  of  creating,  nor  fully  understand 
the  mode  of  attaining  the  end;  the  mode  of  ter- 
minating, originating,  and  sustaining  are  equally 
unintelligible  to  us;  but  the  fact  we  know  from  the 
idea  of  God  as  Infinite.  As  we  cannot  with  a 
Gunter's-chain  measure  the  distance  between  the 
sun  and  the  earth,  but  as  by  calculation,  starting 
from  facts  of  internal  consciousness  and  external 
observation,  we  can  measure  it  with  gi-eater  propor- 
tionate exactness  than  a  carpenter  could  measure 
the  desk  under  my  hand:  —  so  we  cannot  under- 
stand God's  mode  of  operation  as  Cause  or  Provi- 
dence, more  than  an  Indian  baby,  newly  born  in 
Shavv^neetown,  could  understand  the  astronomer's 
mode  of  operation  in  calculating  the  distance  be- 
tween the  earth  and  the  sun  ;  but  as  we  have  this 
idea  of  God,  though  we  know  not  the  mode  of  ope- 
ration, the  middle  terms  which  intervene  betwixt 
the  purpose  and  the  achievement,  we  are  yet  sure  of 
the  fact  that  the  motive,  purpose,  material,  and  means 
are  all  proportionate  to  the  nature  of  the  Creator, 
and  adequate  for  the  welfare  of  the  created. 

In  Nature  God  is  the  only  Cause,  the  only  Provi- 
dence, the  only  Power ;  the  law  of  Nature,  that  is, 
the    constant  mode  of  action   of  the  forces  of  the 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  187 

material  world — represent  the  modes  of  action  of 
God  Himself,  his  thought  made  visible ;  and  as  He 
is  infinite,  unchangeably  perfect,  and  perfectly  un- 
changeable, his  mode  of  action  is  therefore  constant 
and  universal,  so  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as 
a  violation  of  God's  constant  mode  of  action ;  for 
there  is  no  power  to  violate  it  except  God  Himself, 
and  the  perfectly  Infinite  God  could  not  violate  his 
own  perfect  modes  of  action.  And  accordingly 
there  is  no  chance,  no  evil,  no  imperfection,  in  mo- 
tive or  purpose,  in  material  or  means,  or  in  the 
modes  of  action  thereof.  Everywhere  is  calculated 
order,  nowhere  chance  and  confusion ;  everywhere 
regular,  constant  modes  of  action  of  the  forces  in 
the  material  world,  unvarying  and  eternal  laws,  no- 
where is  there  an  extemporaneous  miracle.  Men 
have  their  precarious  make-shifts,  the  Infinite  has 
no  tricks  and  subterfuges,  —  not  a  miracle  in  Nature, 
not  a  whim  in  God.  Seeming  chance  is  real  direc- 
tion ;  what  looks  like  evil  in  Nature  is  real  good. 
The  sparrow  that  falls  to-day  does  not  fall  to  ruin, 
but  to  ultimate  welfare.  Though  we  know  not  the 
mode  of  operation,  there  must  be  another  world  for 
the  sparrow  as  for  man. 


So  much  for  this  Theism  as  a  Theory  of  the 
World  of  Matter.  Now  a  word  for  it  as  a  Theory 
of  the  World  of  Spirit,  of  the  World  of  Man.     This 


188  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

shall  include  man  so  far  as  he  is  matter ;  and  so  far 
as  he  is  matter  and  something  more. 

Look  at  this  first  in  the  most  general  way,  in  rela- 
tion to  Human  Nature,  to  Mankind  as  a  whole; 
then  I  will  come  down  to  particulars.  Here  the 
same  thing  is  to  be  said  as  of  Nature  ;  namely,  the 
Infinite  God  must  be  a  perfect  Cause  thereof,  and 
have  created  the  world  of  man  from  perfect  motives, 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  of  perfect  material,  as  perfect 
means.  God  has  no  other  motive,  purpose,  material, 
or  means.  The  perfect  motive  must  be  Absolute 
Love  —  producing  the  desire  to  bless  the  world  of 
man,  that  is,  the  desire  to  confer  thereon  a  form  and 
degree  of  welfare  which  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
the  entire  nature  of  man.  The  perfect  purpose  must 
be  the  attainment  of  that  bliss ;  the  ultimate  attain- 
ment not  to-day,  or  when  man  wills,  but  when  the 
Infinite  God  wills.  Perfect  material  is  that  which 
is  capable  of  this  welfare;  and  perfect  means  are 
such  as  achieve  it. 

So  much  for  God  considered  as  a  perfect  Cause 
in  the  world  of  man.  I  need  not  here  further  re- 
peat what  I  just  said  of  creation  in  the  world  of 
matter. 

But  God  must  be  also  perfect  Providence  for  the 
world  of  man ;  He  must  be  perpetually  present 
therein,  in  each  portion  thereof.  Men  think  that 
God  was  present  in  some  moment  of  time,  at  the 
creation  of  mankind.     Very  true  I  but  in  each  mo- 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  189 

mcnt  of  mankind's  existence  since,  God  is  just  as 
present ;  for  providence  is  a  continuous  line  of  crea- 
tions, and  God  is  as  much  present,  and  as  much 
active,  at  any  point  of  that  line  as  at  the  beginning 
or  end  thereof.  I  know  men  speak  of  yielding  up 
the  spirit  and  going  out  of  the  body,  going  to  God. 
Is  not  God  about,  within,  and  around  us,  while  we 
are  in  the  body,  just  as  much  as  v/hen  we  shake  off 
the  known  and  enter  on  that  untried  being  ? 

God  must  have  known  at  the  creation  all  the 
action  and  history  of  the  world  of  man  as  well  as 
of  Nature.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  ten  thou- 
sand years  ago  God  knew  less  of  human  history 
than  he  knows  to-day.  That  would  be  to  make 
God  imperfect  in  his  wisdom,  growing  wiser  by  ex- 
perience. Napoleon's  coup  d^etat  was  a  surprise  to 
mankind  ten  months  ago.  Do  you  think  it  was  an 
astonishment  to  God  ten  months  ago?  was  it  not 
infinitely  known  hundreds  of  millions  of  years  ago ; 
eternally  known  ?     It  must  have  been  so. 

I  know  the  question  is  here  more  complicated 
than  in  Nature,  for  in  Nature  there  is  only  one  force, 
the  direct  statical  and  dynamical  action  of  matter ; 
and  accordingly  it  is  easy  to  calculate  the  action 
and  result  of  mechanical,  vegetable,  electrical,  and 
vital  forces.  But  in  the  world  of  man  there  is  a 
certain  amount  of  freedom,  and  that  seems  to  make 
the  question  difficult.  In  that  part  of  the  world  of 
Nature  not  endowed  with  animal  life,  there  is  no 


190  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

margin  of  oscillation;  and  you  may  know  just 
where  the  moon  will  be  to-night,  and  where  it  will 
be  a  thousand  years  hence.  The  constant  forces 
with  their  compensations  may  all  be  known  —  and  so 
every  nutation  of  the  moon  is  calculable  with  entire 
certainty.  The  modes  of  action  there  are  as  little 
variable  as  the  maxims  of  geometry.  The  moon's 
nod  is  an  invariable  consequent  of  material  neces- 
sity. When  a  star  v/ith  fiery  hair  came  splendoring 
through  the  night,  it  filled  mediaeval  astronomers 
with  amazement,  and  celibate  priests,  divorced  from 
Nature,  shook  with  superstitious  fear  as  it  wrote  its 
hieroglyphic  of  God  over  Byzantium  or  Rome  :  was 
God  astonished  at  his  wandering  and  hairy  star  ? 

In  the  world  of  animals  there  is  a  small  margin 
of  oscillation ;  but  you  are  pretty  sure  to  know  what 
the  animals  will  do,  that  the  beaver  will  build  his 
dam  and  the  wren  her  nest  just  as  their  fathers 
built;  that  every  bee  next  summer  will  make  her 
six-sided  cell  with  the  same  precision  and  geometric 
economy  of  material  and  space  wherewith  her  an- 
cestors wrought  ten  thousand  years  ago. 

But  man  has  a  certain  amount  of  freedom ;  a 
larger  margin  of  oscillation,  wherein  he  vibrates 
from  side  to  side.  The  nod  of  Lord  Burleigh  is  a 
variable  contingent  of  human  caprice.  Hence  it  is 
thought  that  God  could  not  foreknow  the  oscillations 
of  caprice  in  the  human  race,  in  the  Adamitic  Cain 
of  ancient  poetry,  or  the  Napoleonic  Cain  of  con- 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  191 

tempomncoiis  history,  till  after  they  took  place. 
But  that  conclusion  comes  only  from  putting  our 
limitations  on  God.  It  is  difficult  for  the  astrono- 
mer's little  boy  to  measure  the  cradle  he  sleeps  in,  or 
to  tell  what  time  it  is  by  the  nursery  clock ;  but  the 
astronomer  can  measure  the  vast  orbit  of  Leverrier's 
star  before  seeing  it,  and  correct  his  clock  by  the 
great  dial  hung  up  in  heaven  itself;  and  the  differ- 
ence between  the  mind  of  the  astronomer's  boy  and 
the  mind  of  the  astronomer  is  nothing  compared  to 
the  odds  between  finite  intellect  and  the  infinite  un- 
derstanding of  God.  So  though  the  gi-eater  compli- 
cation makes  it  more  difficult  for  you  and  me  to 
understand  the  consciousness  of  free  men,  whose 
feelings,  thoughts,  and  consequent  actions  are  such 
manifold  contingents ;  it  is  not  at  all  more  difficult 
for  God. 

Before  the  creation  the  Infinite  God,  as  perfect 
Cause  and  Providence,  must  have  known  all  the 
powers  and  consequent  actions,  movements,  and  his- 
tory of  the  collective  world  of  men,  and  each  indi- 
vidual thereof.  For,  either  man  has  no  freedom  at 
all,  or  he  has  some  freedom  of  will. 

In  the  ffi'st  case,  if  he  has  no  freedom,  no  margin 
of  oscillation,  thefore-knowableness  of  his  actions  does 
not  differ  from  that  of  the  world  of  matter;  a,nd  the 
nutation  of  the  moon  and  the  nod  of  Lord  Bur- 
leigh are  equally  the  invariable  consequent  of  mate- 


192  SPECULATIVE    THEISM. 

rial  or  liuman  necessity.  Then  God  is  the  only 
force  in  the  human  world,  and  of  course,  without 
difficulty,  knows  all  its  action,  for  a  knowledge  of 
the  world  is  only  part  of  his  consciousness  of  Him- 
self; the  treachery  of  Judas  and  the  faithfulness  of  Je- 
sus are  then  but  facts  of  the  divine  self-consciousness. 
If  there  be  freedom,  then  God,  as  the  perfect 
Cause  of  man's  freedom  of  will,  must  have  per- 
fectly understood  the  powers  of  that  freedom ;  and 
understanding  perfectly  the  powers.  He  knew  per- 
fectly all  the  actions,  movements  and  history  thereof, 
at  4he  moment  of  creation  as  well  as  to-day.  The 
perfect  Cause  must  know  the  consequence  of  his 
perfect  creation,  and  knowing  the  cause  and  the 
effects  thereof,  as  perfect  Providence,  and  working 
from  a  perfect  motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  with 
perfect  material  and  by  perfect  means.  He  must  so 
arrange  all  things  that  the  material  shall  be  capable 
of  ultimate  welfare  ;  and  must  use  means  propor- 
tionate to  the  nature  and  adequate  to  the  purpose. 
So  the  quantity  of  human  oscillation  with  all  the 
consequences  thereof  must  of  course  be  perfectly 
known  to  God  before  the  creation  as  well  as  after 
the  special  events  come  to  pass ;  for  to  God  contin- 
gents of  caprice  and  consequents  of  necessity  must 
be  equally  clear,  both  before  and  after  the  event. 
Little  boys,  under  a  capricious  schoolmaster,  learn 
the  constants  of  his  anger's  ebb  or  flow. 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  193 

Full  well  the  boding  tremblers  learn  to  trace 
The  (lav's  disaster  in  his  morning  fiicc." 


And  do  you  think  the  infinite  God  is  astonished  at 
revolutions  in  Italy,  or  the  discovery  of  ether  ?  because 
a  hytTna,  stealthily  and  at  night,  kills  a  girl  in  an 
Abyssinian  town,  or  a  kidnapper,  as  stealthily  and 
also  by  night,  destroys  a  man  in  Boston  ?  The  hy- 
aena crouching  in  his  den,  the  kidnapper  lurking  in 
his  office,  are  both  known  to  God. 

Though  human  caprice  and  freedom  be  a  contin- 
gent force,  yet  God  knows  human  caprice  when  He 
makes  it,  knows  exactly  the  amount  of  that  contin- 
gent force,  all  its  actions,  movements,  and  history, 
and  what  it  will  bring  about.  And  as  He  is  an  in- 
finitely wise,  just,  and  loving  Cause  and  Providence, 
so  there  can  be  no  absolute  evil  or  imperfection  in 
the  world  of  man,  m^ore  than  in  the  world  of  mat- 
ter, or  in  God  Himself. 

So  much  for  this  Theism  as  a  Theory  of  the  World 
of  Man  as  a  Whole,  in  its  most  general  form. 

Now  see  the  concrete  application  thereof  in  the 
General  Human  Life  —  in  the  life  of  nations.  In 
creating  mankind  God  must  have  known  there 
would  come  the  great  races  of  men,  —  Ethiopian, 
Malay,  Tartar,  American,  Caucasian.  He  must 
have  known  there  would  come  such  families  of  the 
Caucasian  as  the  Slavic,  Classic,  Celtic,  Teutonic  ; 
17 


194  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

such  stocks  of  the  Teutonic  as  the  Scandinavian, 
the  German,  the  Saxon ;  of  the  Saxon  such  nations 
as  England  and  America ;  in  their  history  such 
events  as  the  American  Revolution,  the  Mexican 
War,  and  the  like.  I  mean  that  God  as  perfect 
Cause  must  have  perfectly  known  all  these  things 
from  eternity  as  well  as  now.  History  is  a  surprise 
to  us,  not  to  God.  The  breaking  out  of  the  Mexi- 
can War,  the  capture  of  Mexico,  the  failure  or  suc- 
cess of  a  general,  might  be  an  astonishment  to  men  ; 
God  was  not  wiser  afterwards  than  before.  As  per- 
fect Cause  and  Providence,  He  must  have  arranged 
all  things  so  that  mankind  as  a  whole  shall  attain 
that  bliss  which  his  perfect  motive  and  perfect  pur- 
pose require,  which  is  indispensable  to  his  perfect 
material  and  his  perfect  means.  All  the  powers 
and  consequent  actions,  movements,  and  history  of 
mankind  must  therefore  have  been  known  and  pro- 
vided for.  The  savage,  the  barbarous,  the  half-civil- 
ized, and  the  civilized  —  the  feudal  and  commercial 
periods,  and  others  yet  in  store,  must  have  been 
known  and  provided  for.  The  whole  religious  his- 
tory of  man,  Atheism,  Fetichisnij  Polytheism,  Mo- 
notheism,—  the  Monotheism  of  the  Hebrews  and  of 
the  Christians,  —  must  have  been  known.  The  rise, 
decline,  and  fall  of  Egypt,  India,  Persia,  Judea, 
Greece,  Rome,  and  Byzantium,  must  have  been  as 
well  understood  by  God  at  creation  as  now ;  and  as 
perfect  Providence  He  must  have  provided  for  the 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  195 

rise,  decline,  and  fall  thereof,  so  that  they  should  be 
steps  forward,  towards  ultimate  bliss,  and  not  from 
it.  He  must  have  given  man  his  power  of  free  will 
as  all  other  powers,  from  a  perfect  motive,  for  a  per- 
fect purpose,  of  perfect  material  and  as  perfect 
means ;  and  of  course  it  must  achieve  that  purpose 
for  mankind  as  a  whole,  for  those  great  races,  — 
Ethiopian,  Malay,  Tartar,  American,  Caucasian ; 
for  those  families, —  Slavic,  Classic,  Celtic,  Teuton- 
ic; for  those  tribes,  —  Scandinavian,  German,  Sax- 
on ;  for  every  nation,  —  England,  America.  The 
great  events  of  their  history, — the  American  Revo- 
lution, the  Mexican  War,  —  and  every  other,  must 
be  so  overruled  and  balanced  that  they  shall  con- 
tribute to  the  achievement  of  the  purpose  of  God. 
And  what  is  true  of  the  whole  must  be  true  of 
each ;  and  God  must  be  perfect  Providence  for  one 
as  well  as  for  another,  and  so  arrange  these  that 
they  all  shall  come  to  ultimate  bliss. 

Therefore  as  you  look  on  the  sad  aspect  of  the 
world  at  present,  —  on  Italy,  ridden  by  Pope  and 
priest ;  on  Austria,  Hungary,  Germany,  the  spark  of 
freedom  trodden  out  by  the  imperial  or  royal  hoof; 
on  France,  crushed  by  her  own  armies  at  the  com- 
mand of  a  cunning  voluptuary ;  on  Ireland,  trodden 
down  by  the  capitalists  of  Britain  ;  on  the  American 
slave,  manacled  by  State  and  Church,- — you  know, 
first,  that  God  foresaw  all  this  at  the  creation,  as  a 
consequence  of  the  forces  which  He  put  into  human 


196  SPECULATIVE    THEISM. 

nature ;  next,  you  know  that  He  provides  for  it  all, 
so  that  it  shall  not  interfere  with  the  ultimate  bliss 
of  the  Italian,  Pope-ridden  and  priest-ridden  ;  of  the 
Austrian,  Hungarian,  German,  from  whose  heart  the 
imperial  or  royal  hoof  has  trod  the  spark  of  liberty ; 
of  the  Frenchman,  the  victim  of  a  voluptuous  ty- 
rant; of  the  Irishman,  trodden  down  by  the  British 
capitalist;  and  of  the  American  slave,  fettered  by 
the  American  Church  and  manacled  by  the  Ameri- 
can State.  God  made  the  world  so  that  these  par- 
tial evils  would  take  place,  and  they  take  place  with 
his  infinite  knowledge,  and  under  his  infinite  Provi- 
dence. So  when  we  see  these  evils,  we  know  that 
though  immense  they  are  partial  evils  compensated 
by  constants  somewhere,  and  provided  for  in  the 
infinite  engineering  of  God,  so  that  they  shall  be  the 
cause  of  some  ultimate  good.  For  mankind  has  a 
Right  to  be  perfectly  created;  each  race,  family, 
tribe,  nation,  has  a  Right  to  be  created  from  perfect 
motives  for  a  perfect  purpose,  of  perfect  material, 
and  with  the  means  to  achieve  that  purpose ;  not  at 
the  time,  when  Russia  and  Montenegro  will,  or  when 
you  and  I  will,  but  when  infinite  wisdom,  justice, 
love,  knows  that  it  is  best.  And  sad  as  the  world 
looks,  God  knew  it  all,  provided  for  it  all ;  and  its 
welfare,  its  ultimate  triumph  is  insured  at  the 
office  of  the  Infinite  God.  His  hand  is  endorsed 
on  each  race,  each  family,  each  tribe,  each  nation 
of     mankind.     You    cannot     suppose  —  as  writers 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  197 

of  the  Old  Testament  do  —  that  the  afFah-s  of  the 
world  look  desperate  to  God,  and  He  repents  having 
made  mankind,  or  any  fraction  of  the  human  race. 

See  this  Theism  in  its  application  to  Individual 
Human  Life ;  your  life  and  mine.  God  is  perfect 
Cause  and  perfect  Providence  for  me  and  you.  Be- 
fore the  creation  He  knew  every  thing  that  I  shall 
do,  every  thing  that  I  shall  suffer,  every  thing  that  I 
shall  be ;  provided  for  it  all,  so  that  absolute  bliss 
must  be  the  welfare  of  each  of  us  at  last.  The  evil 
—  that  is,  the  suffering  in  mind,  body,  and  estate,  the 
imperfect  bliss,  my  failing  to  attain  the  outward  or 
inward  condition  of  this  welfare, — -'these  must  come 
either  from  my  nature,  my  human  nature  as  man, 
my  individual  nature  as  the  son  of  John  and  Han- 
nah;  or  from  my  ch'cumstances  that  are  about  me ; 
or,  as  a  third  thing,  from  the  joint  action  of  these 
two. 

God  as  perfect  Cause  must  have  known  my  na- 
ture, my  circumstances,  the  effect  of  their  joint 
action ;  as  perfect  Providence,  He  must  have  ar- 
ranged things  so  that  nature  and  circumstances  shall 
work  out  for  me,  and  for  everybody,  all  this  ultimate 
bliss  which  the  perfect  motive  can  desire  as  a  perfect 
purpose,  which  perfect  materials  can  achieve  as  per- 
fect means.  My  individual  suffering,  error,  sin, 
must  have  been  equally  foreseen,  fore-cared  for,  and 
17* 


198  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

used  in  the  great  housekeeping  of  the  Eternal  IMother 
as  a  means  to  accomplish  the  purpose  of  ultimate 
welfare. 

This  must  be  true  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  crucified, 
and  of  Judas  Iscariot  who  betrayed  him  to  the  cross ; 
of  the  St.  Domingo  hero  who  rotted  in  his  dungeon, 
and  of  Napoleon  the  Great,  who  locked  his  dungeon 
door —  himself  one  day  to  be  jailed  on  a  rock,  with 
Ocean  mounting  guard  over  this  Prometheus  of  his- 
toric times  ;  of  theistic  John  Huss  who  blazed  in  his 
fire,  and  of  the  Twenty-third  John,  the  perjured  pope 
of  Rome,  who  lit  that  fire  five  hundred  miles  from 
home. 

As  at  the  creation  of  the  world  of  matter  God 
knew  where  the  solar  system  would  be  in  space, 
where  the  molecules  of  carbon  which  form  the  tie 
that  binds  my  sermon  together,  would  be  on  this  sev- 
enteenth of  October,  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-two 
years  after  the  cradling  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  —  as 
He  arranged  the  universe  so  that  the  solar  system 
and  these  molecules  of  carbon  should  harmonize 
together,  —  as  He  knew  of  the  rise,  decline,  and  fall 
of  states,  and  arranged  all  these  things  so  as  to  har- 
monize with  the  march  of  man  towards  greater 
bliss ;  —  so  He  must  have  known  where  this  little 
atom  of  spirit  which  I  call  Me  would  be  this  day,  — 
what  thoughts,  feelings,  will,  and  suffering  I  should 
have,  and  He  must  make  all  these  harmonize  with 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  199 

my  inarch  towards  that  ultimate  bliss,  which  my 
human  nature  needs  to  take,  and  which  his  infinite 
nature  needs  to  give. 

God  is  responsible  for  his  own  creation,  his  world 
of  matter,  and  his  world  of  man ;  for  mankind  in 
general,  for  you  and  me.  God's  work  is  all  warrant- 
ed. Each  man  has  a  right  to  perfect  creation, — 
creation  from  perfect  motives,  of  perfect  material,  as 
perfect  means  for  a  perfect  purpose.  God  has  no 
other  purpose,  no  other  means,  no  other  material,  no 
other  motive.  He  is  the  infinite  power,  wisdom, 
justice,  love,  and  is  security  for  the  ultimate  welfare 
of  the  sparrow  that  falls  ;  for  mankind  groping  its 
dim  and  perilous  way  ;  for  you  and  me  darkly  feel- 
ing our  way  along,  often  falling  into  pain,  want,  mis- 
ery, and  sin.  God  as  Cause,  and  God  as  Providence 
has  still  means  to  bring  us  back  and  lead  us  homxC. 
I  have  a  natural,  unalienable  Right  to  the  Providence 
of  the  Infinite  God ;  this  Providence  is  the  Duty  of 
God,  inseparable  from  his  Infinity.  If  I  am  sure 
that  God  is  infinite,  then  all  else  that  is  good  I  am 
sure  of,  for  every  thing  which  God  makes  is  stamped 
by  his  hand  with  an  unalienable  Right  to  Him  as 
infinite  Cause  and  infinite  Providence. 

As  God  was  present  at  the  creation  of  matter  and 
of  mankind,  present  with  all  his  infinite  perfection, 
and  active  therewith,  —  so  is  He  present  and  active 
with  me  to-day  with  all  his  infinite  perfections ;  then 
as  Cause,  so  now  as  Providence.     And  do  you  think 


200  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

the  universe  will  fail  of  its  purpose  with  Infinite 
God  as  its  Providence  and  its  Cause  ?  Do  you 
think  any  nation,  any  single  human  soul  can  ever 
fail  of  achieving  this  ultimate  bliss,  with  Infinite 
God  as  its  Cause  and  Infinite  God  as  its  Providence  ? 
Why,  so  long  as  God  is  God  it  is  impossible  that 
his  motive  and  purpose  should  fail  to  design  good 
for  all  and  each  —  or  his  materials  and  means  fail  to 
achieve  that  ultimate  good. 


Well,  since  these  things  are  so,  how  beautiful  ap- 
pears the  Material  World  I  There  is  no  fortuitous 
concourse  of  atoms,  which  the  atheist  talks  of;  there 
is  no  universe  of  selfishness,  no  grim  despot  who 
grinds  the  world  under  his  heels  and  then  spurns  it 
off  to  hell,  as  the  popular  theology  scares  us  withal. 
Every  thing  is  a  thought  of  Infinite  God,  and  in 
studying  the  movements  of  the  solar  system,  or  the 
composition  of  an  ultimate  cell  arrested  in  a  crys- 
tal, developed  in  a  plant,  in  tracing  the  grains  of 
phosphorus  in  the  brain  of  man,  or  in  studying  the 
atoms  which  compose  the  fusil-oil  in  a  drop  of  ether, 
or  the  powers  and  action  thereof,  —  I  am  studying 
the  thought  of  the  Infinite  God.  The  universe  is 
his  scripture  ;  Nature  the  prose,  and  Man  the  poetry 
of  God.  The  world  is  a  volume  holier  than  the 
Bible,  old  as  creation.  What  history,  what  psalms, 
what  prophecy  therein  I  what  canticles   of  love  to 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  201 

beast  and  man  I  not  the  "  Wisdom  of  Solomon  "  as 
in  this  Apocrypha,  but  the  Wisdom  of  God,  written 
out  in  the  great  Canon  of  the  universe. 

Then,  when  I  see  the  suffering  of  animals,  —  the 
father-alligator  eating  up  his  sons  and  daughters,  and 
the  mother-alligator  seeking  to  keep  them  from  his 
jaws, — when  I  see  the  sparrow  falling  at  a  dandy's 
shot,  I  know  that  these  things  have  been  provided  for 
by  the  God  of  the  alligator  and  the  sparrow,  and  that 
the  universe  is  lodged  as  collateral  security  to  insure 
bliss  to  every  sparrow  that  falls. 

From  this  point  of  view  how  beautiful  appears 
the  World  of  Man!  When  I  look  on  the  whole 
history  of  man,  —  man  as  a  savage,  as  a  barbarian, 
as  half-civilized,  or  as  civilized,  —  feudal  or  commer- 
cial—  fighting  with  all  the  forces  which  chemistry 
and  mechanical  science  can  offer,  and  suffering  from 
want,  war,  ignorance,  from  sin  in  all  its  thousand 
forms, — from  despotic  oppression  in  Kussia,  demo- 
ocratic  oppression  in  America,  —  when  I  see  the 
tyranny  of  the  feudal  baron  in  other  times,  with 
his  acres  and  his  armies,  of  the  feudal  capital- 
ist,—  now-a-days,  —  the  commercial  baron,  with 
notes  at  cent  per  cent.,  —  when  I  see  the  hyaena  of  the 
desert  stealing  his  prey  in  an  Abyssinian  town,  and 
the  hyaena  of  the  city  kidnapping  a  man  in  Boston, 
—  when  I  see  all  this,  I  say  the  thing  is  not  hopeless. 
O  no !  it  is  hopeful.     God  knew  it  all  at  the  begin- 


202  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

ning,  as  perfect  Cause ;  cared  for  it  all,  as  perfect 
Providence,  with  perfect  motive,  purpose,  material, 
means  —  will  achieve  at  last  ultimate  welfare  for  the 
oppressor  and  the  oppressed. 

I  see  the  individual  suffering,  from  want,  ignor- 
ance, and  oppression ;  the  public  woe  which  black- 
ens the  countenance  of  men,  the  sorrow  which  with 
private  tooth  gnaws  the  heart  of  Ellen  or  William, 
the  sin  which  puts  out  the  eyes  of  Cain  or  George. 
Can  I  fear  ?  O  no !  though  the  worm  of  sorrow 
bore  into  my  own  heart,  I  cannot  fear.  The  Infinite 
God  with  infinite  power,  wisdom,  justice,  holiness, 
and  love,  knew  it  all,  and  made  the  na.ture  of  Ellen 
and  William,  of  Cain  and  George,  and  controls  their 
circumstances,  so  that  by  their  action  and  the  action 
of  the  world  of  man  and  the  world  of  matter,  the 
perfect  motive  and  the  perfect  means  shall  achieve 
the  perfect  purpose  of  the  infinite  loving-kindness  of 
God. 

Then  how  grand  is  human  destination  I  Ay,  your 
destination  and  mine !  There  is  no  chance  ;  it  is 
direction  which  we  did  not  see.  There  is  no  fate, 
but  a  Mother'^  Providence  holding  the  universe  in 
her  lap,  warming  each  soul  with  her  own  breath, 
and  feeding  it  from  her  own  bosom  with  everlasting 
life. 

In  times  past  there  is  evil  which  I  cannot  under- 
stand ;  in  times  present  evil  which  I  cannot  solve  ; 
suffering  —  for  mankind,  for  each  nation,  for  you  and 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  203 

me  ;  sufferings,  follies,  sins.  I  know  they  were  all 
foreseen  by  the  infinite  wisdom  of  God,  all  provided 
for  by  his  infinite  power  and  justice,  and  his  infinite 
love  shall  bring  us  all  to  bliss,  not  a  soul  left  behind, 
not  a  sparrow  lost.  The  means  I  know  not ;  the  end  I 
am  sure  of. 

"  AVhethcr  I  fly  with  angels,  fall  with  dust, 
Thy  hands  made  both,  and  I  am  there ; 
Thy  power  and  love,  my  love  and  trust, 
»  Make  one  place  everywhere." 

In  the  world  of  matter  there  is  the  greatest  econ- 
omy of  force.  The  rain-drop  is  wooed  for  a  moment 
into  bridal  beauty  by  some  enamoured  ray  of  light, 
then  feeds  the  gardener's  violet,  or  moves  the  grind- 
stone in  the  farmer's  mill,  —  serving  alike  the  turn 
of  beauty  and  of  use.  Nothing  is  in  vain ;  all 
things  are  manifold  in  use.  "  A  rose,  beside  his 
beauty,  is  a  cure."  The  ocean  is  but  the  chemist's 
sink  which  holds  the  rinsings  of  the  world,  and  every 
thing  washed  off  from  earth  was  what  the  land  needed 
to  void,  the  sea  to  take.  All  things  are  twofold ; 
matter  is  doubly  winged,  with  beauty  and  with 
use. 

"  Nothing  hath  got  so  far. 
But  man  hath  caught  and  kept  it  as  his  prey  ; 

His  eyes  dismount  the  highest  star ; 

He  is  in  little  all  the  sphere. 
Herbs  gladly  cure  our  flesh,  because  that  they 

rind  their  acquaintance  there. 


204  SPECULATIVE    THEISM. 

"  For  us  the  winds  do  blow, 
The  earth  doth  rest,  heaven  move,  and  fountains  flow ; 

Nothing  we  see  but  means  our  good, 

As  our  delight,  or  as  our  treasure  ; 
The  whole  is  either  our  cupboard  of  food, 

Or  cabinet  of  pleasure. 

"  The  stars  have  us  to  bed  ; 
Night  draws  the  cuitain,  which  the  sun  Avithdraws. 

Music  and  light  attend  our  head  : 

All  things  unto  our  flesh  are  kind 
In  their  descent  and  being ;  to  our  mind 

In  their  ascent  and  cause." 

And  do  yon  then  believe  that  the  great  C4od,  whose 
motto,  "  waste  not,  want  not,"  is  pictured  and  prac- 
tised on  earth  and  sea  and  sky,  is  prodigal  of  hu- 
man suffering,  human  woe  ?  Every  tear-drop  which 
sorrow  has  wrung  from  some  poor  negro's  eye,  every 
sigh,  every  prayer  of  grief,  each  groan  which  the 
exile  puts  up  in  our  own  land,  and  the  groan  which 
the  American  exile  puts  up  in  Canada, — while  his 
tears  shed  for  his  wife  and  child  smarting  in  the 
tropics,  are  turned  to  ice  before  they  touch  the  wintry 
ground,  —  has  its  function  in  the  great  chemistry  of 
our  Father's  world.  These  things  were  known  by 
God,  and  He  will  bring  every  exile,  every  wanderer 
in  his  arms,  the  great  men  not  forgot,  the  little  not 
less  blest,  and  bear  them  rounding  home  from  bale 
to  bliss,  to  give  to  each  the  welfare  which  His  nature 
needs  to  give  and  ours  to  take. 


SPECULATIVE   THEISM.  205 

The  atheist  looks  out  on  a  here  without  a  Here- 
after, a  body  without  a  Soul,  a  world  without  a 
Heaven,  a  universe  with  no  God  ;  and  he  must  needs 
fold  his  arms  in  despair,  and  dwindle  down  into  the 
material  selfishness  of  a  cold  and  sullen  heart.  The 
popular  theologian  looks  out  on  the  world  and  sees 
a  body  blasted  by  a  Soul,  a  here  undermined  by  a 
Hereafter  of  hell,  arched  over  with  a  little  paltry 
sounding-board  of  Heaven,  whence  the  elect  may 
look  over  the  edge  and  rejoice  in  the  writhings  of  the 
Yvorms  unpitied  beneath  their  feet.  He  looks  out 
and  sees  a  grim  and  revengeful  and  evil  God.  '  Such 
is  his  sad  whim.  But  the  man  with  pure  theism  in 
his  heart  looks  out  on  the  world,  and  there  is  the  In- 
finite God  everywhere  as  perfect  Cause,  every- 
where as  perfect  Providence,  transcending  all,  yet 
immanent  in  each,  with  perfect  power,  wisdom,  jus- 
tice, holiness  and  love,  securing  perfect  welfare  unto 
each  and  all. 

On  the  shore  of  Time  where  Atheism  sat  in  des- 
pair, and  where  Theology  howled  with  delight,  at 
its  dream  of  hell  all  crowded  with  torment  at  the 
end,  —  there  sits  Theism.  Before  it  passes  on  the 
stream  of  Human  History,  rolling  its  volumed  wa- 
ters gathered  from  all  lands,  —  Ethiopian,  Malay, 
Tartar,  Cauca"sian,  American,  —  from  each  nation, 
tribe,  and  family  of  men ;  and  it  comes  from  the  In- 
finite God,  its  perfect  Cause ;  it  rolls  on  its  waters 
by  the  infinite  Providence,  its  perfect  Protector ;  He 
18 


206  SPECULATIVE   THEISM. 

knew  at  Creation  the  history  of  empires,  these  lesser 
dimples  on  the  stream  ;  of  Ellen  and  William,  Cain 
and  George,  the  bubbles  on  the  water's  face  ;  He 
provided  for  them  all,  so  that  not  a  dimple  deepens 
and  whirls  away,  not  a  bubble  breaks,  but  the  perfect 
Providence  foresaw  and  forecared  for  it  all.  God  is 
on  the  shore  of  the  stream  of  Human  History,  infi- 
nite power,  wisdom,  justice,  love;  God  is  in  the  air 
over  it,  where  floats  the  sparrow  that  fell,  falling  to 
its  bliss  —  in  the  waters,  in  every  dimple,  in  each 
bubble,  in  each  atom  of  every  drop ;  and  at  the  end 
the  stream  falls  into  the  sea,  —  that  Amazon  of  hu- 
man history,  under  the  line  of  Providence,  on  the 
Equator  of  the  world,  falls  into  the  great  ocean  of 
eternity,  and  not  a  dimple  that  deepens  and  whirls 
away,  not  a  bubble  that  breaks,  not  a  single  atom  of 
a  drop,  is  lost.  All  fall  into  the  ocean  of  blessed- 
ness, which  is  the  bosom  of  love,  and  then  the  rush 
of  many  waters  sings  out  this  psalm  from  human 
nature  and  from  human  history,  — "  If  God  is  for 
us,  who  can  be  as^ainst  us  ?  " 


VI. 

OF  PRACTICAL   THEISM,  REGARDED  AS  THE 
PRINCIPLE  OF  ETHICS. 


LET    INTEGKITT   AND    UrRIGHTNESS    PRESERVE    ME. — Psalm 
XXV.    21. 

Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  Speculative  Theism  as 
a  Theory  of  the  Universe.  To-day  I  ask  your  atten- 
tion to  a  Sermon  of  Practical  Theism ;  of  Theism 
considered  as  a  principle  of  Ethics. 

You  start  with  the  Idea  of  God  as  Infinite  in 
power,  wisdom,  justice,  love,  holiness;  you  consider 
Him  in  his  relation  to  the  universe,  as  perfect  Cause 
and  perfect  Providence ;  you  see  that  from  his  na- 
ture He  must  have  made  the  world,  and  all  things 
therein,  from  a  perfect  motive,  for  a  perfect  purpose, 
of  perfect  material,  as  perfect  means  thereto ;  and 
therefore  that  Human  Nature  must  be  adequate  to 
the  end  which  God  designed;  that  it  must  be  pro- 
vided with  means  adequate  to  the  development  of 
man;  that  all  the  faculties  in  their  normal  activity 


208  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

must  be  the  natural  means  for  achieving  the  pur- 
poses of  God.  You  see  that  as  He  gave  Nature, 
the  material  world,  its  present  amount  of  necessi- 
tated forces,  knowing  exactly  how  to  proportion  the 
means  to  the  end,  the  forces  to  the  result  which  they 
were  to  produce ;  —  in  like  manner  He  gave  to  man 
his  present  amount  of  contingent  forces,  knowing 
perfectly  well  what  use  man  would  make  thereof, 
what  abuses  would  ensue,  what  results  would  come 
to  pass,  and  ordering  and  balancing  these  things, 
compensating  one  constant  by  another,  caprice  by 
necessity,  so  that  our  human  forces  should  become 
the  means  of  achieving  his  divine  purpose,  and  the 
free-will  of  man  should  ultimately  work  in  the  same 
line  with  the  infinite  perfection  of  God,  and  so  the 
result  which  God  designed  should  be  achieved  by 
human  freedom :  therefore,  that  this  perfect  Cause 
and  perfect  Providence  has  provided  human  freedom 
as  part  of  the  perfect  means  whereby  human  desti- 
nation is  to  be  wrought  out;  —  which  destination  is 
not  fate,  but  providence. 

Well,  this  idea  of  God,  the  consequent  idea  of  the 
Universe  and  of  the  Relation  between  the  two,  can- 
not remain  merely  a  theory;  it  will  affect  hanian 
life  in  all  its  most  important  details. 

It  will  appear  in  the  Form  of  Religion.  Man 
must  always  work  with  such  intellectual  apparatus 
— faculties  and  ideas — as  he  has.    With  the  Idea  of 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  209 

the  Infinite  God,  he  must  progressively  construct  a 
form  of  religion  corresponding  to  that  idea.  That 
form  of  religion  will  comprise  the  subjective  wor- 
ship, and  the  objective  service  of  God ;  and  so  it 
will  become  the  Theoretic  Ideal  of  human  life. 

Then  that  form  of  religion  will  appear  in  the  Ac- 
tual Life  of  men,  and  in  all  the  modes  and  modifi- 
cations thereof:  —  for  no  human  force  is  so  subtle  as 
the  religious ;  it  extends,  and  multiplies,  and  goes 
into  every  department  of  human  affairs  ; 

"  Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent." 


Let  us  now  look  at  the  theoretic  Form  of  religion 
which  belongs  to  this  idea,  and  at  the  Realization 
thereof  in  human  life.  Treating  of  a  theme  so  vast 
I  must  pass  over  much  which  I  would  gladly  say, 
and  only  briefly  touch  where  I  would  fain  pause 
long  and  dwell. 

I.  First,  then,  of  the  Form  of  Religion.  Of  Re- 
ligion there  are  always  two  parts ;  namely,  the  sub- 
jective portion,  which  is  Piety,  consisting  of  emotions 
that  are  purely  internal ;  and  next  the  objective  por- 
tion, which  is  Morality,  internal  in  part,  and  exter- 
nal also ;  rooted  in  our  consciousness  of  God,  and 
branched  abroad  into  practical  action  in  our  houses 
and  farms  and  shops,  our  warehouses,  our  libraries, 
and  our  banks.  Let  me  speak  of  each  of  these, 
18* 


210  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

going  over  things  very  much  at  large,  in  the  sketch- 
iest way. 

First  of  the  subjective  portion.  When  fully  grown 
this  subjective  part  must  be  pure  Piety ;  I  mean  to 
say  piety  not  mixed  with  any  other  emotion.  There 
will  be  no  Fear  or  Distrust  of  God,  because  it  is 
known  that  there  is  nothing  in  God  to  fear.  I  fear 
what  hurts  ;  never  what  helps. 

Distrust  of  God  rests  on  the  idea  that  He  is  some- 
thing not  perfect;  imperfect  in  power,  wisdom,  jus- 
tice, love,  or  holiness :  and  with  that  idea  of  Him 
God  may  seem  good  so  far  as  He  goes,  but  not  go- 
ing infinitely ;  He  does  not  go  far  enough  to  warrant 
infinite  trust;  and  so  there  is  a  partial  distrust. 

Fear  of  God  is  worse  yet.  That  rests  on  the  sup- 
position that  there  is  not  only  in  God  something  not 
perfect,  but  that  there  is  in  Him  something  which  is 
not  good,  not  kind. 

But  you  cannot  fear  infinite  love  ;  you  cannot  fear 
infinite  justice,  nor  infinite  holiness ;  nor  yet  infinite 
wisdom  and  infinite  power,  when  they  are  directed  by 
infinite  justice  and  animate  with  infinite  love.  With 
the  idea  of  God  as  infinitely  perfect  I  may  indeed  have 
doubts  of  to-morrow,  doubts  of  my  own  or  another's 
temporary  welfare,  for  I  know  not  what  result  the  con- 
tingent forces  of  human  freedom  will  produce  to-mor- 
row :  but  I  can  have  no  doubt  of  eternity,  no  doubts  of 
ray  own  or  another's  ultimate  welfare,  because  I  do 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  211 

know  that  the  absolute  forces  of  God  will  so  control 
the  conditional  and  contingent  forces  of  men  which 
His  plan  arranged  and  provided  for,  that  ultimately 
the  perfect  purpose  of  God  shall  be  achieved  for  all 
and  each.  A  silversmith  makes  a  watch,  knowing 
the  powers  and  consequent  necessitated  action  of 
the  materials  he  puts  therein,  so  that  it  will  keep 
time  corresponding  with  the  dial  of  the  heavens. 
But  he  does  not  know  how  the  purchasers  of  the 
watch  will  use  it,  Avh ether  or  no  they  will  fulfil  the 
conditions  essential  to  its  action ;  and  so  he  cannot 
absolutely  foretell  and  provide  for  all  its  action  and 
history;  it  will  be  subject  to  conditions  which  he 
cannot  control  or  foresee.  Now  the  infinite  God,  at 
the  creation  of  man,  knew  all  the  powers  He  put 
therein ;  He  knew  all  the  conditions  into  which  the 
necessitated  forces  of  material  nature,  and  the  con- 
tingent forces  of  human  nature,  shall  bring  mankind 
and  each  special  person.  Accordingly  God  abso- 
lutely knows  not  only  the  primitive  powers  of  each 
man,  but  the  action,  movements,  and  complete  his- 
tory thereof  under  any  and  all  the  conditions  of 
existence.  And  the  infinite  God  working  with  mo- 
tives proportionate  to  His  nature,  and  means  ade- 
quate to  His  purpose,  must  needs  make  man 
capable  of  achieving  that  ultimate  welfare  which 
the  finite  needs  to  have  and  the  Infinite  needs  to  give. 
If  God  be  infinite,  a  perfect  Cause  and  perfect  Provi- 
dence, this  conclusion  follows  as  plain  as  the  road 


212  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

to  mill.  So  I  say  I  can  have  no  distrust  and  no  fear 
of  God ;  no  fear  of  ultimate  failure  or  future  tor- 
ment. Suffering  I  may  have  in  another  life :  I  will 
meet  it  gladly,  and  thank  God ;  it  is  medical,  and 
not  malicious.  In  the  popular  theology  God  is  rep- 
resented as  a  Jesuitical  inquisitor  ;  but  the  Infinite 
God  is  a  protector,  a  father  and  mother. 

Then  there  will  be  Absolute  Love  of  God,  —  to  the 
mind  God  will  be  the  beauty  of  truth ;  to  the  con- 
science the  beauty  of  justice,  to  the  affections  the 
beauty  of  love,  to  the  soul  the  beauty  of .  holiness,  and 
to  the  whole  consciousness  of  man  He  will  appear  as 
the  total  Infinite  Beauty ;  the  perfect  and  absolute  ob- 
ject of  every  hungering  faculty  of  man ;  the  Cause  that 
creates  from  perfect  love  as  motive,  for  perfect  love 
as  purpose,  and  by  perfect  love  as  means  ;  the  per- 
fect Providence  that  provides  from  the  same  motive 
for  the  same  purpose,  and  by  the  same  means.  So 
He  will  appear  as  the  Father  and  the  Mother  of 
all;  operating  by  necessitated  forces  in  the  dew- 
drop,  and  in  the  all  of  material  things ;  operating, 
also,  by  contingent  forces  in  the  soul  of  a  little  girl, 
or  in  the  great  aggregate  of  spirit  which  we  call  the 
world  of  man ;  operating  so  perfectly  as  Cause  and 
so  perfectly  as  Providence  that  He  is  Father  and 
Mother  to  every  soul.  I  say  this  Idea  of  God  is 
infinitely  lovely,  and  awakens  in  the  heart  of  a  man, 
who  draws  near  thereto,  the  deepest  and  tenderest 
love.     There  is  no  fear. 


TRACTICAL   THEISM.  213 

With  this  Idea  of  God,  and  this  Love  of  Him, 
there  comes  a  Perfect  Trust  in  God,  as  Cause  and 
Providence:  —  not  only  a  trust  in  the  daylight  of 
science,  where  we  see,  but  in  the  twilight,  even  in 
the  darkness  of  ignorance,  where  we  see  not:  —  an 
absolute  trust  in  his  motive,  his  purpose,  and  his 
means ;  so  that  we  shall  not  desire  any  other  motive 
but  the  motive  of  God,  nor  any  other  purpose  but 
the  purpose  of  God,  nor  any  other  means  but  the 
means  He  has  provided  thereto. 

With  that  trust  there  must  come  a  perpetual 
Hope,  for  yourself,  for  all  mankind;  for  as  dark  as 
the  world  may  be,  dark  as  my  own  condition  may 
be,  my  outward  lot,  my  inward  state,  —  still  I  know 
assuredly  that  God  foresaw  it  all,  provided  for  it  all, 
and  that  He  cannot  fail  in  motive,  in  purpose,  or 
means  thereto  ;  and  thus  light  will  spring  out  of 
darkness  and  bliss  come  forth  out  of  bale. 

With  this  there  will  come  Tranquillity  and  Rest 
for  the  soul ;  that  Peace  spoken  of  in  the  fourth  canon- 
ical Gospel,  which  the  world  cannot  give  nor  take 
away. 

Then  there  will  come  a  real  Joy  in  God.  I  mean 
the  happiness  which  the  Mystics  call  the  "  sense  of 
sweetness  "  that  comes  when  the  conditions  of  the 
soul  are  completely  met ;  when  the  true  idea  of  God 
and  the  appropriate  feeling  towards  Him  furnish  the 
personal,  human,  inward  condition  of  religious  de- 
light, and  there  is  nothing  between  us  and  the  infin- 


214  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

ite  Father.  That  is  the  highest  joy  and  the  highest 
delight  of  human  consciousness.  The  natural  de- 
sires of  the  body  may  fail  of  satisfaction, — their 
hunger  shortening  my  days  on  earth,  —  and  T  may 
be  poor  and  cold  and  naked ;  I  may  be  a  prisoner  in 
a  dungeon  of  Austria,  or  a  slave  on  a  plantation  of 
Carolina ;  I  may  be  sick  and  feeble,  and  the  condi- 
tions of  domestic  and  of  social  welfare  may  not  be 
met;-— but  if  the  soul's  conditions  are  fairly  met 
within  on  the  side  that  is  turned  towards  the  Infinite, 
then  through  the  clouds  the  beauty  of  God  shines 
on  me  and  I  am  at  peace. 

So  there  will  come  a  Beauty  of  Soul,  I  mean  a 
harmonious  spiritual  whole  of  well-proportioned 
spiritual  parts,  and  there  will  be  a  continual  and  con- 
stant growth  in  all  the  noble  qualities  of  man.  God 
will  not  be  thought  afar  off,  separated  from  Nature, 
separated  from  man,  but  dwelling  therein,  immanent 
in  each  though  yet  transcending  all.  Nature  will 
be  seen  as  a  revelation  of  God ;  and  the  march  of 
man  will  reveal  also  the  same  Providence,  as  the 
world  of  matter  —  human  consciousness  disclosing 
higher  characteristics  of  the  infinite  God.  Commu- 
nion with  Him  will  be  direct,  my  spirit  meeting  His, 
with  nothing  betwixt  me  and  the  Godhead  of  God. 
I  shall  not  pray  by  attorney,  but  face  to  face.  In- 
spiration will  be  a  fact  now,  not  merely  a  history  of 
times  gone  by.  Worship,  the  subjective  service  of 
God,  will  be  not  by  conventional  forms  of  belief, 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  215 

of  speech,  or  of  posture  ;  not  by  a  sacramental  ad- 
dition of  an  excrescence  where  Nature  sutfered  no 
lack,  nor  by  mutilation  of  the  body,  or  mutilation  of 
the  spirit,  the  sacramental  cutting  off  where  God 
made  nothing  redundant:  but  by  conscious  noble 
emotions  shall  I  subjectively  worship  God  ;  by  grat- 
itude for  my  right  to  the  Father,  and  in  His  universe, 
the  thanksgiving  of  an  upright  heart ;  by  aspiration 
after  a  higher  ideal  of  my  own  daily  life ;  by  the 
sense  of  Duty  to  be  done,  which  comes  with  the 
sense  of  Right  to  be  enjoyed;  by  penitence  where  I 
fall  short ;  by  resolutions,  that  in  my  "  proper  mo- 
tion," I  may  ascend,  and  not  by  adverse  fall  come 
down  ;  by  the  calm  joy  of  the  soul,  its  delight  in 
Nature,  in  Man,  and  in  God ;  by  the  hope,  the  faith, 
and  the  love,  which  the  large  soul  sends  out  of  itself 
in  its  religious  life ;  and  by  the  growing  beauty  of 
character,  which  constantly  increases  in  love  of  wis- 
dom, in  love  of  justice,  in  love  of  benevolence  —  in 
love  of  Man,  and  in  love  of  God.  That  will  be  the 
real  worship,  the  internal  service  of  the  Father. 

So  much  for  the  subjective  part  of  this  form  of 
religion. 

Of  the  Objective  Part  also  a  word.  God,  who  is 
thus  subjectively  served  in  the  natural  forms  of  Piety, 
must  be  objectively  served  or  worshipped  in  the  nat- 
ural forms  of  Morality ;  that  is,  by  keeping  all  the 
laws   of  God.     In   Nature,  the   material  world,  the 


216  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

law  of  God  is  the  actual  constant  mode  of  operation 
of  the  forces  thereof,  —  the  way  it  does  act.  There 
all  is  necessitated,  and  we  know  of  the  law  by  see- 
ing the  fact  that  it  is  always  kept ;  for  the  ideal  law 
of  matter  is  the  actual  fact  of  matter,  learned  by 
observation,  not  by  consciousness.  So  the  material 
universe  and  God,  in  every  point  of  space  and  time 
are  continually  at  one.  If  law  is  a  constant  of  God, 
obedience  thereto  is  a  constant  of  matter.  But  in 
man,  the  law  of  God  for  man  is  the  ideal  constant 
mode  of  operation  of  the  human  force,  —  the  way 
it  should  act.  This  is  not  always  a  fact  in  any 
man ;  and  we  learn  it  not  merely  by  observation  of 
our  history,  but  by  consciousness  of  our  nature. 
Morality  is  the  making  of  the  ideal  of  human  nature 
into  the  actual  of  human  history.  Herein  the  ideal 
of  God's  purpose  becomes  the  actual  of  man's 
achievement,  and  so  far  man  and  God  are  at  one,  as 
everywhere  God  and  matter  are  at  one.  Then  for 
every  point  of  Right  we  seek  to  enjoy,  there  is  a 
point  of  Duty  which  we  will  to  do. 

Thus  in  general,  morality  will  be  the  objective 
service  of  God,  as  piety  is  the  subjective  worship  of 
God.  These  two,  make  up  the  whole  of  Religion. 
They  are  the  only  divine  service :  Piety  is  the  great 
inward  sacrament  and  act  of  worship ;  Morality  the 
great  outward  sacrament  and  act  of  service.  Piety 
will  be  free  piety,  such  as  the  spirit  of  man  demands. 
Morality  will  be  free  morality,  such  as  the  spirit  of 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  217 

man  demands;  both  perfectly  conformable  to  the 
nature  which  God  put  into  man,  to  the  body  and  the 
spirit,  —  the  mind  and  conscience,  heart  and  soul. 

This  morality  will  consist  in  keeping  the  Law  of 
the  Body ;  in  giving  it  its  due  use,  development,  en- 
joyment and  discipline,  in  the  world  of  matter. 

The  popular  theology,  in  its  ascetic  rules,  goes  to 
an  extreme  and  does  great  injustice.  It  counts  the 
body  mean,  calls  it  vile,  says  that  therein  dwells 
no  good  thing.  It  mortifies  the  flesh,  crucifies  the 
affections  thereof.  But  the  body  is  not  vile.  Did 
not  the  infinite  Father  make  it,  —  not  a  limb  too 
much,  not  a  passion  too  many?  God  make  any 
thing  vile  I  and  least  of  all  this,  which  is  the  con- 
summation of  his  outward  workmanship,  —  the 
frame  of  man  I     Far  from  us  be  the  thought. 

The  Atheistic  philosophy  goes  to  the  other  ex- 
treme, and  clamors  for  the  "rehabilitation  of  the 
flesh,"  and  would  have  a  paradise  of  the  senses,  as 
the  sole  and  earthly  heaven  of  man.  Theology  turns 
the  flesh  out  of  doors,  and  the  soul  has  cold  house- 
keeping, living  alone ;  Atheism  turns  the  soul  out  of 
doors,  and  the  flesh  has  no  better  time  of  it;  no,  has 
a  worse  time,  with  its  scarlet  women  "  tinging  the 
pavement  with  proud  wine  too  good  for  the  tables  of 
pontiffs."  Absolute  Religion  demands  the  use  of 
every  limb  of  the  body,  every  faculty  of  the  soul,  all 
after  their  own  kind,  each  performing  its  proper 
function  in  the  housekeeping  of  man.  Then  there 
19 


218  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

will  be  freedom  of  the  body,  freedom  for  every  limb 
to  perform  its  function,  and  to  perform  no  more. 
That  is  the  morality  of  the  body. 

This  morality  will  consist  also  in  keeping  the 
Law  of  the  Spirit ;  that  is,  in  giving  the  spirit  its 
natural  empire  over  the  material  part  of  us,  and  in 
giving  each  spiritual  faculty  its  natural  place  in  the 
housekeeping  of  the  spirit ;  so  that  each,  the  intel- 
lectual, the  moral,  the  affectional,  and  the  purely 
religious  faculty,  shall  have  its  due  development,  use, 
enjoyment,  and  discipline  in  life.  Then  there  will  be 
spiritual  freedom ;  that  is,  the  liberty  of  every  spir- 
itual faculty  to  perform  its  own  work,  and  no  more. 
This  is  the  morality  of  the  spirit. 

The  popular  Theology  restrains  each  spiritual 
faculty.  It  hedges  you  in  with  the  limitation  of 
some  great  or  little  man ;  it  calls  a  man's  fence  the 
limit  to  God's  revelation  :  it  does  not  give  the  mind 
room,  nor  conscience  room,  nor  the  affections  room, 
nor  yet  the  soul  sufficient  space  to  serve  God,  each 
by  its  natural  function. 

One  of  the  good  things  of  Atheism  has  been  this  : 
it  offers  freedom  to  the  human  spirit.  That  is  its 
only  good,  and  its  only  charm.  In  a  church  of  The- 
ology the  great  mind  cannot  draw  a  long  breath,  lest 
it  should  wake  up  the  "wrath  of  God,"  —  which, 
we  are  told,  never  sleeps  very  sound,  nor  long  at  a 
time.  In  the  free  air  of  Atheism  the  largest  mind 
is  told  to  breathe  as  deep  as  he  can,  and  make  as 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  219 

much  noise  as  he  will ;  there  is  no  God  to  molest 
and  make  him  afraid.  That  is  the  only  charm 
which  Atheism  ever  had  to  any  man.  It  raises  men 
from  fear,  and  it  bids  them  be  true  to  that  part  of 
their  nature  which  they  know. 

Well,  such  will  be  the  form  of  Religion  coming 
from  Theism  ;  such  its  Piety  and  Morality.  You 
see  it  will  be  a  form  of  religion  which  fits  well  upon 
man ;  fits  well  upon  the  finite  side,  —  on  man,  for 
it  is  derived  from  his  nature,  and  represents  all 
parts  thereof,  doing  justice  to  the  body,  to  its  every 
limb,  to  all  its  senses,  functions,  passions  ;  doing  jus- 
tice to  the  spirit,  every  faculty  thereof,  intellectual, 
moral,  affection al,  and  religious.  It  fits  just  as  well 
on  the  infinite  side  —  on  God  ;  for  it  is  drawn  from 
human  nature  on  the  supposition  that  God  made 
human  nature  from  perfect  motives,  of  perfect  mate- 
rial, for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a  perfect  means 
thereto.  This  form  of  religion,  then,  is  the  applica- 
tion of  God's  means  to  the  purpose  of  God. 

As  "  Christian"  Theology  professes  to  be  derived 
from  a  verbal  revelation  of  God,  —  represented  by 
the  Church,  as  the  Catholics  say,  by  the  Scriptures 
as  the  Protestants  teach,  —  so  the  Absolute  Religion 
is  derived  from  the  real  revelation  of  God,  which  is 
contained  in  the  universe ;  this  outward  universe  of 
matter,  this  inward  universe  of  man ;  and  I  take  it 
we   do   not  require   the   learned    and   conscientious 


220  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

labors  of  a  Lardner,  a  Paley,  or  a  Norton,  to  con- 
vince us  that  the  universe  is  genuine  and  authentic, 
and  is  the  work  of  God,  without  interpolation.  We 
all  know  that.  I  call  this  the  Absolute  Religion, 
because  it  is  drawn  from  the  absolute  and  ultimate 
source;  because  it  gives  us  the  absolute  Idea  of 
God,  —  God  as  Infinite  ;  and  because  it  guarantees 
to  man  his  natural  rights,  and  demands  the  perform- 
ance of  the  absolute  duties  of  human  nature. 
So  much  for  this  Form  of  Religion. 


II.  Now  see  how  this  Form  of  Religion  will  ap- 
pear in  the  Actual  Life  of  Man,  and  the  subjective 
religious  thought  become  an  objective  religious 
thing. 

See  it  first  in  the  form  of  Individual  Human  Life ; 
in  a  person.  He  will  be  the  most  religious  man  who 
most  conforms  to  his  nature ;  who  has  most  of  this 
natural  piety  and  of  this  natural  morality.  There 
will  be  various  degrees  thereof,  only  one  kind.  He 
will  worship  God  the  best,  or  subjectively  serve 
Him,  who  has  the  most  love  of  truth,  the  most  love 
of  justice,  of  benevolence,  of  holiness;  the  greatest 
love  of  man  and  the  greatest  love  of  God;  who 
most  desires  and  strongest  wills  to  possess  these  great 
qualities;  in  short,  he  who  has  the  most  natural 
piety.     He  will  serve  God  the  best,  objectively  wor- 


PRACTICAL   TUEISM.  221 

ship  Him,  who  has  the  most  of  truth,  of  righteous- 
ness, of  friendship,  of  philanthropy,  of  holiness  — 
fidelity  to  himself;  he  who  best  uses  the  great  or  the 
little  talent  and  opportunity  which  God  has  given ; 
in  a  word,  he  who  lias  the  most  morality.  He  will 
be  the  most  completely  religious  man  who  most 
keeps  the  law  of  God,  for  his  body  and  for  his  soul ; 
and  of  course  who  coordinates  the  flesh  and  the  spirit, 
and  duly  subordinates  the  low  qualities  of  the  spirit 
to  the  higher;  —  for  a  very  little  activity  of  the  higher 
faculties  of  man  is  worth  a  great  deal  of  activity  of 
the  lower ;  even  as  an  ounce  of  gold  can  any  day 
purchase  some  tons  of  sand. 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  true  scale  of  man's 
spiritual  faculties :  —  Intellect  is  the  lowest  of  them, 
dealing  with  truth,  use,  and  beauty  in  their  abstract 
and  concrete  forms;  next  comes  Conscience,  aiming 
at  justice  and  eternal  right ;  next  the  Affections,  lov- 
ing persons,  and  sacrificing  my  personal  joy  to  the  de- 
light of  another  person ;  and  highest  of  all  comes  the 
religious  faculty,  which  I  call  the  Soul,  that  seeks 
the  infinite  Being,  Father  and  Mother  of  the  Uni- 
verse, and  loves  Him  with  perfect  love  and  serves 
Him  with  perfect  trust.  So  in  the  individual  the 
soul,  taking  cognizance  of  the  infinite  Being  and  His 
relation  to  us,  is  thereby  our  natural  master.  Is  not 
this  true  which  I  state  ?  It  is  not  merely  my  psy- 
chological knowledge  of  man  which  tells  me  this  ;  it 
is  the  world's  history  which  tells  it;  it  is  the  con- 
19* 


222  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

sciousness  of  your  heart  and  my  heart,  which  cry 
out  for  the  living  God,  and  assure  us  that  we  must 
subordinate  every  thing  to  Him. 

What  a  difference  there  will  be  between  the  saint 
of  absolute  Religion  and  the  saint  of  the  popular 
Theology.     The  real   saint  is   a  man  who  aims  to 
have  a  whole  body,  and  a  whole  mind,  and  a  whole 
conscience,  and   a  whole   heart,  and  a  whole  soul; 
and  to  live  a  whole,  brave,  manly  life,  at  work  in  the 
daily  calling  of  grocer,  or  mason,  or  legislator,  or 
cabinet-maker,  or  historian,  or  seamstress,  or  preach- 
er, or  farmer,  or  king,  or  whatsoever  it  may  be :  that 
will  be  the  aim  of  the  saint  of  natural  religion.    But 
tfae  popular  saint  is  an  exceedingly  different  thing; 
a   meager,   church-rid  mope,  "  a-dust  and  thin,"   a 
ghost  of   humanity  that  haunts  the   aisles  of   the 
church ;  for  the  popular  saint  is  dyspeptic  in  body, 
dyspeptic  in  mind  and  conscience,  in  heart  and  soul : 
you  see  by  his   face  that  his   spiritual  digestion  is 
poor,  his  stomach  is  weak,  and  his  religion  does  not 
agree  with  him.     He  must  send  off  to  the  Jordan  to 
get  water  to  christen   his  baby,   before   his   baby  is 
safe  from  the  damnation  of  hell ;  baptism  with  the 
spirit  of  God  and  the  spirit  of  man  is  not  enough. 
But  the  real  saint  of  absolute  religion  must  be  a  free 
spiritual  individual.     His  piety  must  represent  him, 
•  and  his  morality  must  represent  him,  and  he  will 
carry  them  both  into  all   his  work.     Knowing  that 
God  gave  him  faculties  as  God  meant  him  to  have 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  223 

them,  each  containing  its  law  in  itself;  knowing  that 
God  provided  them  as  a  perfect  means  for  a  perfect 
purpose,  and  that  that  purpose  is  one  which  cannot 
fail,  —  he  will  use  these  faculties  in  the  true  service 
of  God ;  and  he  will  work  as  no  other  man,  — with  a 
strength,  and  a  vigor,  and  a  perseverance ;  ay,  and  a 
beauty  of  character  too,  which  nothing  but  religion 
can  ever  give.  So  there  will  be  the  greatest  strength 
to  do,  to  be,  and  to  suffer,  sure  to  conquer  at  the 
last.  He  will  sail  the  more  carefully,  for  he 
knows  that  careful  sailing  is  the  service  which 
God  requires  of  him ;  he  will  sail  the  more  con- 
fident, because  he  knows  that  his  voyage  is  laid 
out,  and  his  craft  is  insured  by  the  Power  who 
holds  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand ;  yes, 
that  it  is  insured  against  ultimate  shipwreck  at  the 
great  office  of  the  infinite  God.  Will  he  not  work 
therefore  with  greater  earnestness  and  zeal  because 
he  knows  that  God  gave  him  these  talents  as  perfect 
means  for  a  perfect  end ;  with  more  confidence  be- 
cause he  knows  the  end  is  made  sure  of;  and  with 
more  caution,  because  he  knows  that  the  true  use  of 
the  means  is  the  only  service  God  asks  of  him  ? 

See  this  same  thing  in  its  Domestic  Form,  —  that 
of  human  life  in  the  family.  The  family  must  rep- 
resent the  free  spiritual  individuality  of  man  and 
woman,  regarded  as  equal,  and  equally  joining  by 
connubial  love  —  passion  and  affection  —  for  mutual 


224  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

self-denial  and  mutual  delight ;  —  for  there  is  no 
marriage  without  mutual  self-denial  as  means,  for 
mutual  delight  as  end.  Marriage  between  a  perfect 
man  and  a  perfect  woman,  would  be  mutual  surren- 
der and  mutual  sacrifice. 

In  all  forms  of  religion  that  I  know,  from  the 
book  of  Moses  to  the  book  of  INIormon,  from  Con- 
fucius to  Calvin,  woman  is  degraded  before  man ; 
for  in  all  forms  of  religion  hitherto  Force  has  been 
preferred  above  all  things,  and  the  great  quality 
which  has  been  ascribed  to  God  is  an  omnipotence 
of  force.  That  is  the  thing  which  Christendom  has 
worshipped  these  many  hundred  years,  not  love ;  a 
mighty  head,  a  mighty  arm,  not  a  mighty  heart.  As 
force  is  preferred  before  all  things  in  God,  so  in 
man  ;  hence  in  religion  ;  thence  in  all  human  affairs. 
And  as  woman  has  less  force  than  man,  less  force  of 
muscle,  less  force  of  mind,  has  more  fineness  of 
body,  superior  fineness  of  intellect,  has  eminence  of 
conscience,  eminence  of  affection,  eminence  of  the 
religious  power,  eminence  of  soul ;  —  as  she  is  infe- 
rior to  man  in  his  inferior  elements,  and  superior  in 
his  higher,  —  so  she  has  been  prostrated  before  him. 
Her  Right  of  nature  has  been  trodden  under  foot  by 
his  Might  of  nature.  This  degradation  of  woman 
is  obvious  in  all  forms  of  religion ;  it  is  terribly  ap- 
.  parent  in  the  Christian  church.  The  first  three  Gos- 
pels,—  the  last  is  an  exception  —  the  writings  of 
Paul  and  Peter,  the  book  of  Revelation,  have  small 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  225 

respect  for  woman,  little  regard  for  marriage.  The 
Bible  makes  woman  the  inferior  of  man ;  his  instru- 
ment of  comfort,  his  medium  of  posterity;  created 
as  an  after-thought,  for  an  "helpmeet"  to  man,  be- 
cause "  it  was- not  good  for  man  to  be  alone."  Mar- 
riage in  the  New  Testament  —  in  the  first  three 
Gospels  at  least  —  is  only  for  time :  "  in  the  king- 
dom of  Heaven  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in 
marriage."  It  is  a  low  condition  here ;  celibacy  is 
the  better  of  the  two  ;  "  it  is  not  good  to  marry ;  "  — 
only  "  all  men  cannot  receive  this  saying."  The 
Christ  was  represented  as  born  with  no  human 
father,  —  his  birth  a  fling  at  wedlock.  The  Chris- 
tian church  has  long  taught  that  marriage  was  a 
little  unholy ;  and  woman  was  bid  to  be  ashamed  of 
that  part  of  her  nature  which  made  her  a  daughter 
first,  and  afterwards  a  wife  and  mother.  What  do 
Jerome,  Augustine,  and  Aquinas,  and  the  Popes 
say  of  connubial  love  ?  They  have  Paul  as  warrant 
for  their  unnatural  creed.  All  this  depreciation  of 
woman  comes  from  the  idea  of  a  God  with  whom 
might  is  more  than  right ;  the  idea  of  a  God  that  is 
mighty  in  his  head,  in  his  outstretched  arm,  but  is 
feeble  in  his  conscience,  and  feeble  in  his  heart ;  a 
most  unmotherly  God. 

But  the  Absolute  Religion  will  give  woman  her 
true  place  in  the  family,  as  the  equivalent  of  man ; 
and  when  the  family  is  of  two  free  spiritual  individ- 
ualities, grouped  together  by  mutual  love,  for  mutual 


226  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

self-denial  and  mutual  delight,  then  we  shall  have  a 
family  religion  such  as  the  world  never  saw  before. 
And  that  will  not  be  deemed  the  most  religious  fam- 
ily, which  has  the  most  of  psalm-singing  and  of 
prayers,  —  excellent  things,  I  deny  not,  —  but  that 
wherein  every  law  of  the  body  and  every  law  of  the 
spirit  are  most  completely  kept ;  where  man  is  joined 
to  woman,  and  woman  joined  to  man  in  passional 
and  atfectional  love,  with  mutual  sacrifice  and  mutual 
surrender ;  the  wedlock  of  equals,  not  the  huddling 
together  of  a  superior  and  an  inferior. 

See  this  in  its  Social  Form,  —  that  of  human  life 
in  communities.  All  men  will  be  regarded  as  equal 
in  nature,  equal  in  rights,  equally  entitled  to  take  a 
just  and  natural  delight  in  the  world  of  matter,  on 
the  same  just  and  natural  conditions  which  God  has 
laid  down.  The  Absolute  Religion  of  the  individual 
must  be  "  professed  "  in  the  institutions  of  society, 
and  be  made  life  in  the  world  of  men.  Then  Mo- 
rality will  take  the  form  of  Industry  in  all  its  mil- 
lion modes ;  of  Natural  Enjoyment  of  the  products 
of  industry ;  of  Justice,  regulating  the  intercourse  of 
men  by  the  golden  rule,  which  is  alike  the  standard- 
measure  in  the  mind  of  man  and  in  the  mind  of 
God ;  the  form  of  Friendship  with  a  few,  from 
whom  we  ask  delight  in  return  for  the  joy  we  give ; 
the  form  of  Philanthropy  to  all,  asking  no  return. 
Industry  will  be  deemed  a  divine   service ;  and  a 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  227 

man's  shop,  library,  bank,  office,  warehonsc,  farm, 
his  station  in  church  or  state,  —  all  will  be  deemed 
the  special  temple  wherein  he  is  to  worship  the 
Father  by  natural  morality,  —  service  with  every 
limb  of  his  body,  every  faculty  of  his  spirit,  every 
power  over  matter  or  man  which  he  has  gained. 
Friendship,  with  its  mutual  triumph  and  reciprocal 
surrender,  philanthropy,  which  comes  as  charity  to 
palliate  the  effects  of  ill,  or  as  justice  to  remove  the 
cause  of  ill,  —  these  will  be  deemed  the  noble  factors 
in  the  religion  of  society,  to  work  out  "  a  far  more 
exceeding,  even  an  eternal  weight  of  glory."  Then 
the  tools  of  a  man's  work,  the  farmer's  plough,  the 
mason's  trowel,  the  griddle  of  the  cook,  the  needle 
of  the  seamstress,  and  the  scholar's  pen,  will  be 
reckoned  the  consecrated  vessels  of  our  divine  ser- 
vice, and  of  man's  daily  com.munion  with  man. 

There  will  be  a  church,  doubtless,  for  gathering 
the  multitudes  from  the  cold  air,  to  warm  their  faces 
where  one  great  man  lights  the  fire  with  sentiments 
and  ideas  which  he  has  caught  from  God.  There 
will  be  a  Sabbath  for  rest,  for  thought,  for  ideas,  for 
sentiments  ;  hours  of  self-communion,  of  penitence, 
of  weeping ;  aspirations,  hours  of  highest  commu- 
nion and  life  with  God  ;  but  the  whole  world  will  be 
a  temple,  every  spot  holy  gi'ound,  every  bush  burn- 
ing with  the  Infinite,  all  time  the  Lord's  day,  and 
every  moral  act  worship  and  a  sacrament.  Then 
men  will  see  that  voluntary  idleness  is  a  sin ;  that 


228  PRACTICAL    THEISM. 

profligacy  is  a  sin ;  that  deceit  is  a  sin ;  that  fraud 
in  work  and  in  trade  is  a  sin ;  that  no  orthodoxy  of 
belief,  no  multitude  of  prayers,  no  bodily  presence 
in  a  church,  no  acceptance  of  an  artificial  sacrament, 
can  ever  atone  for  neglect  of  the  great  natural  sacra- 
ment which  God  demands  of  every  man. 

Will  not  that  be  a  change  in  society  ?  Now,  the 
man  of  the  popular  theology  sneaks  into  church  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  hopes  thereby  to  atone 
for  an  abnegation  of  God  on  the  other  six ;  com- 
munes with  God  through  bread  and  wine,  and  refuses 
to  commune  with  Him  in  buying  and  selling;  is 
a  liar,  a  usurer,  a  kidnapper  before  men,  while  he 
professes  to  be  a  saint  before  God.  What  is  taught 
to  him  as  "revealed  religion,"  does  not  rebuke  his 
pride,  nor  correct  his  conduct. 

Then  with  the  teaching  of  the  true  absolute  Reli- 
gion, it  will  be  seen  that  the  great  man  is  only  the 
great  servant  of  mankind.  He  that  is  powerful  by 
money,  ofiice,  culture,  genius,  owes  mankind  an 
eminence  of  industry,  justice,  and  love,  as  pay  to 
God  for  the  opportunities,  the  station,  the  strength, 
which  he  has  received.  God  gave  him  greatness  by 
nature  ;  society  gave  him  greatness  of  culture,  of 
wealth,  of  station  ;  —  Why  ?  That  he  might  do  the 
more  service,  not  take  the  more  ease.  The  man  of 
genius  is  born  to  be  eyes  for  the  public.  If  he  looks 
out  only  for  himself  he  has  denied  the  faith,  and  is 
an  Infidel. 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  229 

Then  it  will  be  seen  that  the  truie  function  of  the 
powerful  class,  —  men  strong  by  Money,  wherein 
New  England  is  so  rich,  men  strong  by  Cultm-e, 
whereof  New  England  is  even  now  so  poor  —  is  to 
do  mankind  an  eminent  service  ;  to  protect  the  needy, 
the  defenceless,  the  ignorant  and  the  wretched. 
Riches  are  valuable  as  they  fertilize  the  soil  for  hu- 
man excellence  to  grow  on,  not  for  some  lazy  weed 
to  rise  and  rot.  If  wealth  impoverish  him  that  gets, 
or  those  from  whom  it  was  won  there  is  a  twofold 
curse,  blasting  him  that  takes,  and  those  who  aid 
therein.  If  superior  culture  only  shuts  out  the 
scholar  from  common  men,  he  had  better  have  spent 
his  years  in  a  coal  pit  than  a  college.  True  religion, 
true  manhood,  teaches  that  if  you  receive  genius 
and  talent  from  God,  or  culture  at  the  cost  of  men  — 
you  owe  the  use  of  all  to  men,  to  the  poor,  the 
ignorant,  the  feeble-minded.  Science  is  moral  when 
it  opens  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  and  teaches  the  fool- 
ish to  understand  wisdom ;  Wealth  is  pious  when  it 
helps  Charity  palliate  the  ills  she  cannot  cure,  and 
aids  Justice  to  extirpate  the  wrongs  which  curse 
mankind.  Strength  is  religious  when  it  bears  the 
burthens  of  the  weak. 

When  the  knowledge  of  the  infinite  God  is  spread, 
abroad  in  Society,  social  honors  will  not  be  given  to 
a  man  for  the  accident  of  famous  birth,  or  merely  for 
gathered  gold ;  not  for  the  station  to  which  some 
human  chance  has  blown  the  man  ;  not  for  his  cul- 

20 


230  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

ture  of  intellect  alone,  nor  the  dear  gift  of  genius 
which  God  gave  him  at  his  birth ;  but  for  the  use  he 
makes  of  his  native  gifts  or  labored  acquisitions ;  for 
his  faithfulness  to  himself,  to  man  and  God ;  for  his 
justice,  his  love,  and  his  piety,  shown  by  the  use  of 
one  talent  or  ten. 

There  will  always  be  diversities  in  natural  powers 
and  in  the  use  thereof,  and  so  diversities  of  culture, 
of  property,  of  social  station  and  social  power.  God 
is  democratic  and  loves  all,  but  the  odds  between  the 
natm-al  gifts  of  John  and  James  may  be  greater  than 
the  difference  betwixt  the  plains  of  Lombardy  and 
the  Alps  which  look  down  thereon.  Men  may  try 
to  forget  this  fact ;  America  may  put  little,  mean  men 
with  mediocrity  of  intellect,  into  her  president's 
chair;  may  put  little  mean  men  with  ordinary 
mind  and  with  feeble  conscience,  with  inferior  affec- 
tions and  a  paltry  soul,  into  their  pulpits  ;  but  God 
still  goes  on  creating  his  great  masterly  men,  with 
immense  intellect  and  commensurate  moral,  afFec- 
tional  and  religious  powers,  who  while  they  come  to 
bless,  perforce,  must  overawe  and  terrify  the  little- 
ness which  burrows  in  state  and  church ;  men  who 
receive  the  earliest  salutation  of  new-rising  truth, 
and  shed  it  down,  reflecting  from  far  up  the  Higher 
Law's  intolerable  day  on  president  and  priest.  Alas, 
great  minds  have  hitherto  been  commonly  the 
tyrants  of  the  times,  oppressors  in  the  state,  and 
worse  oppressors  in  the  church  :  and  humble  men 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  231 

believed  tliat  God  was  only  Might,  not  also  Right 
and  Love ;  so  they  paid  a  base  and  servile  homage 
to  the  great  oppressor,  and  trod  down  justice,  mercy, 
love,  in  their  haste  to  kneel  before  a  Pope  or  King. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  still  exceptional  in  the  world's 
long  life;  Napoleon  is  instantial.  But  if  selfish 
jDopes  and  kings  are  common  history,  the  self-deny- 
ing Christ  is  prophecy  of  what  one  day  shall  be.  For 
as  God  made  the  mountains  stony,  huge  and  tall,  that 
they,  screening  the  vale  below,  might  wrestle  with  the 
storm,  and  clothe  their  shoulders  with  ice  and  snow 
—  spoil  wrung  from  the  wayfaring  cloud,  —  and 
therewith  robe  the  plains  beneath  in  green  and  vari- 
colored dress ;  so  has  He  made  great,  mountainous- 
minded  men  as  forts  of  defence  for  all  the  rest,  and 
treasuries  of  help.  Great  men  shall  not  always 
misuse  their  five  talents,  nor  little  men  hide  their 
one  piece  of  the  Lord's  small  money  in  the  ground; 
mankind  long  stumbling  will  one  day  learn  to  w^alk. 
Then  men  w^ill  see  that  that  is  the  most  religious 
community  where,  proportionately,  the  most  pains 
is  taken  to  secure  the  welfare  of  all,  to  speed  Genius 
on  its  triumphant  way,  to  help  the  poor,  the  feeble, 
men  of  imperfect  body  and  imperfect  brain,  and 
those  sad  wrecks  of  circumstance  we  now  pile  up  in 
jails  to  moulder  and  to  rot.  A  steeple  and  a  gallows 
will  not  always  be  the  signs  significant  of  a  Chris- 
tian land.  Men  will  not  measure  the  religion  of 
society  by  the  number  of  the  temples   and   priests, 


232  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

but  by  the  colleges  and  school-houses,  the  hospitals, 
the  asylums  for  the  old,  the  sick,  the  deaf,  the  blind, 
the  foolish,  the  crazy  and  the  criminal ;  nay,  they 
will  measure  it  by  the  honest  industry  in  business ; 
by  truth  in  science  ;  by  beauty  in  literature  ;  by  jus- 
tice in  the  state;  by  the  comfort,  the  health,  the 
manhood  of  the  man. 

Look  at  this  in  its  Ecclesiastical  form,  that  of 
Human  Life  in  Churches.  Men  will  combine  about 
some  able  man  for  other  purposes  —  to  kindle  their 
religious  feelings  by  social  communion ;  to  learn  the 
true  idea  of  God,  of  man  and  of  the  relation 
between  the  two,  the  idea  of  duty  to  be  done  and 
rights  to  be  possessed  ;  to  make  the  idea  a  fact,  so 
that  what  at  first  was  but  subjective  feeling,  then 
a  thought,  shall  next  be  translated  into  deed,  done 
into  men,  families,  communities,  states  and  a  world, 
and  so  the  ideal  of  God  become  the  achievement  of 
mankind. 

Then  the  function  of  the  church  will  be  to  keep 
all  the  old  which  is  good,  and  get  all  possible  good 
which  is  new.  No  creed,  no  history,  or  Bible  shall 
interpose  a  cloud  betwixt  man  and  God  ;  reverence 
for  Moses,  Jesus,  or  Mohammed  shall  be  no  more  a 
stone  between  our  eyes  and  truth,  but  a  glass,  tel- 
escopic, microscopic,  to  bring  the  truth  of  God  yet 
nearer  to  our  heart.  The  Bible's  letter  shall  no 
longer  kill ;  but  the  spirit  which  "  touched  Isaiah's 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  233 

hallowed  lips  with  lire,"  and  flamed  in  the  life  of 
a  Nazarene  Carpenter  till  its  light  shone  round  the 
world,  will  dwell  also  in  many  a  new-born  soul.  No 
man  shall  be  master,  to  rule  with  authority  over 
our  necks ;  but  whoso  can  teach  shall  be  our  friend 
and  guide  to  help  us  on  the  heavenly  road. 

Then  the  minister  must  be  a  man  selected  for  his 
human  power,  —  for  his  power  of  mind,  of  con- 
science and  of  heart  and  soul;  with  well-born 
genius  if  we  can  find  it,  with  well-developed  talents 
at  the  least.  His  function  will  be  to  help  awaken 
the  feeling  of  piety  in  all  men's  hearts  ;  to  bring  to 
light  the  ideas  of  Absolute  Religion  which  human 
nature  travails  with,  longing  to  bear ;  and  to  make  the 
inward  worship,  also,  outward  life.  He  must -help 
apply  this  idea  to  life.  Negatively  —  this  will  be 
criticism,  exposure  of  the  false,  the  ugly  and  the 
wrong,  the  painful  part  of  preaching,  the  surgery  of 
the  church.  Positively  —  it  will  be  creation,  mak- 
ing application  of  religion  to  the  individual,  the 
family,  community,  state  and  world.  So  the  min- 
ister will  not  aim  to  appease  an  offended  God,  grim, 
revengeful  and  full  of  paltry  resentment;  nor  to 
communicate  a  purchased  salvation  from  the  fabled 
torments  of  hell ;  nor  to  add  the  imputed  righteous- 
ness of  a  good  man  to  help  us  to  an  unreal  heaven. 
But  with  the  consciousness  of  God  in  his  heart, 
with  the  certain  knowledge  of  God's  infinite  perfec- 
tion, sure  of  the  perfect  motive,  purpose,  means  of 
20* 


234  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

God,  and  conscious  of  eternal  life,  he  is  to  preach  the 
natural  laws  of  man.  He  is  to  lead  in  science,  if  it 
be  possible,  —  in  physics,  ethics,  metaphysics ;  to 
lead  in  justice,  applying  its  abstract  laws  to  concrete 
life  —  not  to  hinder  them  by  institutions,  or  by  books, 
by  the  Vedas,  the  Koran,  or  the  Testament ;  to  lead 
in  love,  connubial,  friendly,  philanthropic ;  ay,  to 
lead  in  holiness,  —  the  subjective  service  of  God 
which  is  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  the  objective 
worship,  which  is  service  by  the  normal  use,  develop- 
ment and  enjoyment  of  every  limb  of  the  body, 
every  faculty  of  the  spirit,  every  power  acquired 
over  matter  or  man.  He  will  be  more  anxious  to 
understand  truth,  beauty,  and  justice,  to  have  love 
and  faithj  more  anxious  to  communicate  these  to 
man,  and  organize  them  into  individual,  domestic, 
social,  national,  human  life,  than  to  baptize  men  in 
water  from  the  Jordan,  the  Ganges,  or  the  Irraw^addy. 
He  will  be  accounted  the  most  valuable  minister 
who  most  helps  forward  the  highest  development  of 
mankind ;  and  that  will  be  held  as  the  most  religious 
church  whose  members  live  the  manliest  life  of  the 
body  and  the  spirit  —  with  the  most  of  normal  use, 
development  and  enjoyment  of  all  their  nature,  — 
do  the  most  of  human  duty,  enjoy  the  most  of  hu- 
man rights,  and  so  have  the  most  and  the  manliest 
delight  in  themselves,  in  Nature,  in  man  and  God. 

See  this  religion  in  the  Political  Form,  that  of 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  235 

National  Life.  Here  the  aim  will  be  to  take  the 
Constitution  of  the  Universe  for  the  foundation  of  all 
political  institutions,  making  absolute  Justice  the 
standard-measure  in  all  political  affairs,  and  reenact- 
ing  the  Higher  Law  of  God  into  all  the  statutes  of 
the  people's  code.  Men  of  Genius,  in  all  its  many 
modes,  wiU  be  the  nation's  telescopic  eye  to  discov- 
er the  Eternal  Right.  The  highest  thought  of  the 
most  gifted  and  best  cultured  men  will  become  the 
ideal  which  the  nation  seeks  to  incorporate  in  its 
code,  to  administer  in  its  courts,  and  revive  in  its 
daily  life.  That  will  be  thought  the  most  religious 
nation  whose  institutions,  constitutions,  statutes 
and  decisions  conform  the  most  to  abstract  right, 
applying  this  to  its  action  abroad  and  at  home ; 
where  the  whole  people  are  the  best  and  the  best  off; 
and  the  higher  law  of  God  is  carried  out  in  the 
action  of  the  nation  with  other  states,  of  the  gov- 
ernment with  the  people,  of  class  with  class,  and  of 
man  with  man.  As  proofs  of  the  national  religion 
you  will  bring  forward  the  character  of  the  people  — 
their  conduct  abroad  and  at  home,  their  institutions 
and  their  men. 

This  religion  must  take  a  Cosmic,  or  General  Hu- 
man Form,  in  the  Life  of  Mankind.  It  will  unite 
all  nations  into  one  great  bond  of  brotherhood.  As 
the  members  and  various  faculties  of   Thomas  or 


236  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

Edward  are  conjoined  in  a  man,  with  personal  unity 
for  all,  bat  individual  freedom  for  each  ;  as  several  per- 
sons are  joined  together  in  a  family,  with  domestic 
unity  for  all,  but  individual  freedom  for  each  ;  as  the 
families  form  a  community,  and  the  communities  a 
state,  with  social  and  national  unity  of  action,  but 
yet  with  domestic  and  social  individualitj"  of  action  ; 
so  the  nations  of  the  world  will  join  together,  all 
working  with  cosmic  human  unity  of  action,  but 
each  having  its  own  national  individuality  of  action. 
This  would  realize  the  dim  ideal  of  Pagan  Zeno  — 
who  counted  men,  not  as  Athenians  and  Persians,  but 
as  joint  tenants  of  a  common  field  to  be  tilled  for  the 
advantage  of  all  and  each,  —  and  of  Christian  Paul 
—  who  taught  that  the  God  whom  the  Athenians 
ignorantly  worshipped  "  made  of  one  blood  all  na- 
tions of  men." 

Then  law  would  be  justice,  loyalty  righteousness, 
and  patriotism  humanity.  Men  conscious  of  the 
same  human  nature,  and  consciously  serving  the  in- 
finite God,  must  needs  find  their  religion  transcend- 
ing the  bounds  of  their  family,  community,  church 
and  nation,  and  reaching  out  to  every  human  soul. 
But  hitherto  forms  of  religion  have  been  a  wedge  to 
sever  men,  and  not  a  tie  to  bind.  The  popular  the- 
ologies of  the  world  in  this  life  aim  to  separate  the 
"Christian"  from  the  "Heathen,"  the  Protestant 
from  the  Catholic,  the  Unitarian  from  the   Trinita- 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  237 

rian,  the  new  school  from  the  old  school;  and  in  the 
next  life,  the  "reprobate"  from  the  "elect,"  the  sin- 
ner from  the  saint. 


On  the  last  five  Sundays,  I  have  spoken  of  Athe- 
ism and  of  the  Popular  Theology.  I  hope  1  did  no 
injustice  to  Atheism,  none  to  the  Atheist.  It  is  a 
sad  thought,  his  world  without  a  God  ;  his  here,  but 
no  Hereafter;  his  body,  and  no  Soul.  I  hope  I  did 
him  no  injustice.  One  thing  he  surely  has  that  the 
popular  theologian  has  not :  he  has  freedom ;  free- 
dom from  fear,  freedom  to  use  his  faculties.  This 
freedom  will  last  forcA^er.  But  the  theory  of  the 
atheist  abuts  in  selfishness,  and  in  darkness  his  lit- 
tle light  goes  out. 

I  hope  I  did  no  injustice  to  the  Popular  Theology. 
It  is  grim,  it  is  awful.  It  bears  great  truths  in  its 
bosom,  and  those  truths  will  last  forever;  but  the 
popular  theology  as  a  system  must  fall.  It  rests  on 
two  columns. 

One  is  the  idea  of  an  angry  God,  imperfect  in 
wisdom,  in  power,  in  justice,  love  and  holiness ;  a 
finite,  and  jealous  and  revengeful  God;  creating 
man  from  mean  motives,  for  a  mean  purpose,  and  of 
a  mean  material,  —  God  with  a  hell  under  his  feet, 
"  paved  with  skulls  of  infants  not  a  span  long,"  and 
swarming  full  of  horrid,  writhing  life,  that  chokes  it 
to  the  brim. 


238  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

The  other  pillar  is  the  idea  of  a  supernatural 
Christ,  a  God  and  yet  a  man,  with  a  supernatural 
birth,  supernatural  works,  resurrection  and  ascension 
—  a  supernatural  atoning  sacrifice  to  take  away  the 
sins  of  the  world.  These  are  the  Jachin  and  Boaz 
of  this  theology. 

Philosophy  strikes  down  the  first  column,  and 
there  is  no  angry  God,  no  infinite  hell  "  paved  with 
skulls  of  infants  not  a  span  long,"  and  full  of  horrid, 
writhing  life ;  and  so  Theology  swings  in  the  air  at 
one  end. 

Criticism  strikes  away  the  other  pillar,  the  super- 
natural Christ:  there  is  no  supernatural  Christ,  a 
God  and  yet  a  man,  with  a  supernatural  birth,  su- 
pernatural works,  resurrection,  ascension,  —  an  aton- 
ing sacrifice  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world.  And 
so  Theology  swings  in  the  air  at  the  other  end.  It 
lacks  a  philosophical  basis  and  historical  superstruc- 
ture ;  false  in  its  idea,  and  false  also  in  its  historic 
fact. 

The  scientific  atheist  mocks  at  the  God  of  the 
popular  theology.  Says  Lalande,  I  have  looked 
far  off  through  my  telescope,  and  there  is  no  God 
betwixt  me  and  the  furthest  star,  for  I  have  seen 
all  the  way  through.  Ehrenberg,  with  his  micro- 
scope, finds  a  million  million  of  creatures  in  a 
single  cubic  inch  of  polishing  slate  from  Germany ; 
but  he  finds  no  theological  God  therein.  The  chem- 
ist analyzes  the  materials   of  the  world  into  their 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  239 

elements,  and  he  finds  oxygen,  carbon  and  the  rest, 
but  he  finds  no  theologic  God  therein.  The  scien- 
tific atheist  mocks  at  the  Church's  God. 

The  popular  idea  of  God  is  inadequate  for  Sci- 
ence ;  ay,  yet  worse,  it  is  inadequate  for  Philan- 
thropy ;  for  the  philanthropist  loves  the  poor,  the 
beggar,  loves  the  Indian,  the  slave,  the  outcast, 
the  atheist  and  the  criminal;  and  Theology  says 
the  slave  is  the  posterity  of  Ham,  whom  God  cursed 
by  Noah  and  spurned  from  his  feet ;  and  sinners  are 
to  have  an  everlasting  hell  in  the  world  to  come. 
The  atheists  turn  off  with  scorn  from  the  theologic 
idea  of  a  God  who  knows  less  than  Alphonso  of 
Castile  ;  and  the  philanthropist,  with  a  tear,  turns 
from  the  damning  deity  of  the  popular  church. 

Hence  comes  the  position  of  Religion  to-day. 
Look  at  Boston :  how  small  is  the  church  and  how 
poor ;  how  big  is  the  tavern  and  how  rich ! 
Why,  the  keeper  of  the  tavern  in  Boston  is  more 
influential  than  "  the  minister  of  Christ :  "  the  con- 
secrated preacher  in  his  pulpit  trembles  before  Felix 
in  his  bar.  The  Holy  Ghost  of  the  church,  with 
the  other  two  persons  of  the  Trinity,  yields  to  the 
spirit  of  the  tavern ;  there  is  "  no  room  for  them 
in  the  inn  ; "  happy  if  they  can  find  a  manger  with 
the  oxen,  and  a  swaddling  garment  for  their  new- 
born piety  in  the  cattle's  crib.  Look  at  Boston, 
with  its  hundred  clergymen,- — religion  is  no  re- 
straint in  business,  no  restraint  in  politics ;  not  at 


240  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

all ;  and  in  our  literature  of  mediocrity,  —  that  is  the 
only  literature  which  America  yet  possesses  —  reli- 
gion is  a  force  infinitessimally  small,  and  not  felt. 
It  dares  not  speak  against  drunkenness  and  prostitu- 
tion ;  it  is  dumb  religion,  and  dares  not  even  oppose 
the  stealing  of  men  out  of  their  houses  in  this  town. 
The  minister's  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  ;  no,  ver- 
ily, it  belongs  to  a  world  that  is  dead  and  gone. 
Respectable  gentlemen  do  not  ask  morality  in  a 
lawyer ;  they  expect  it  not  in  a  politician ;  they 
ask  it  of  the  minister.  God  be  thanked,  they  do 
ask  some  little  of  it  there.  But  it  is  only  moral 
decency,  —  compliance  with  easy-mannered  virtue, 
not  the  morality  of  a  Paul  whose  sph'it  was  stirred 
in  him  when  he  saw  the  city  wholly  given  to  idola- 
try ;  no,  the  Ephesian  morality  of  Demetrius  !  But 
a  lawyer  whose  life  is  corrupt,  who  is  unscrupulous 
and  unprincipled,  or  a  politician  who  is  rotten,  will 
not  find  that  he  is  less  trusted  by  the  great  cities  of 
this  country.  Tell  men  that  slavery  is  wicked  ;  that 
to  play  the  pirate  in  Cuba  is  sin,  —  what  do  they 
say  ?  They  quote  the  constitution.  "  Politics  is 
national  housekeeping,  not  national  morality,"  say 
they.  "  Talk  of  the  Higher  Law,  do  you  ?  You  are 
a  fanatic  I     We  disposed  of  that  long  ago." 

I  say  the  Popular  Theology  is  not  a  "  finality,"  — 
to  use  the  language  of  the  day.  It  is  doomed  to 
perish.  Let  me  do  it  no  injustice.  Mankind  is  very 
serious  ;  a  very  honest  mankind  ;  and  its  great  works 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  241 

are  done  with  sweat  and  w^atching  and  sore  travail. 
Down  on  its  knees  went  mankind  to  pray  for  this 
theology ;  and  we  have  it.  With  many  faults  it  has 
great  truths.  The  truths  will  never  perish;  they 
w411  last  while  God  is  God.  Even  its  faults  have 
done  mankind  no  small  service.  War  has  taught 
us  activity,  and  discipline  of  body  and  mind  ;  has 
taught  the  organization  of  men  ;  the  power  of  thou- 
sands when  molten  to  a  single  mass,  and  wielded 
by  a  single  will.  But  the  popular  theology  has 
taught  greater  things  than  that:  it  has  taught  the 
omnipotent  obligation  of  Duty;  to  sacrifice  every 
thing  for  God  —  the  body  and  the  spirit,  the  intel- 
lect, with  its  pride  of  reasoning,  the  conscience  with 
its  righteousness ;  the  affections,  with  their  love  of 
father  and  mother  and  wife  and  child.  The  warrior 
all  stained  with  blood  and  sweating  with  his  lust,  it 
taught  to  subordinate  the  flesh  to  the  spirit,  to  scorn 
the  joys  of  the  sense,  to  practice  self-denial  of  ease 
and  honor  and  health  and  riches  and  life,  for  the 
good  that  is  purely  spiritual.  This  is  the  lesson 
which  ascetic  Protestantism  has  so  grimly  taught  to 
you  and  me,  and  ascetic  Catholicism  to  the  Chris- 
tian world.  The  monks  and  nuns,  the  martyrs  of 
the  Inquisition,  the  saints  who  went  hungry  and 
naked  and  cold ;  the  infidels  and  atheists  who  turned 
off  from  all  religion  frighted  by  this  bugbear  of  the 
church ;  the  dreadful  doubts  and  fears  and  madness 
21 


242  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

and  despair  of  the  world,  —  these  are  the  tuition- 
fees  which  mankind  has  paid  for  this  great  lesson. 

Let  this  theology  pass.  Science  hates  it.  Every 
Cyrena  from  the  London  clay  —  a  leaf  gathered 
from  the  Book  of  God  now  newly  unfolded  from  the 
flinty  keeping  of  a  pebble  on  a  subterranean  beach, 
myriads  of  years  older  than  Moses  —  confutes  Mo- 
ses and  turns  the  popular  Theology  upside  down. 
Philanthropy  hates  it ;  hates  its  jealous  God,  its 
narrow  love,  its  pitiless  torment,  and  its  bottomless 
and  hopeless  hell.  Let  it  pass.  It  can  do  little  for 
us  now ;  little  for  the  mind  and  the  canscience  of  the 
world;  nothing  for  the  affections,  nothing  for  the 
soul.  It  can  only  drive  men  by  fear,  not  charm  by 
love.  Let  it  pass ;  and  its  ministers  tremble  before 
the  bank,  the  shop,  and  the  tavern.  Let  the  church- 
ling  crouch  down  before  the  worldling  if  he  will. 

But  will  Atheism  aid  us  any  more  ?  It  will  do 
nothing,  cheer  nothing.  It  has  only  this  to  perform, 
—  to  rid  men  of  fear  and  bondage  to  ancient  creeds. 
It  never  was  a  spring  of  action,  and  never  can  be. 
No  I  We  must  root  into  the  soil  of  God,  else  we 
perish  for  lack  of  earth.  An  earth  without  a  Heaven, 
a  here  with  no  Hereafter,  a  body  without  a  Soul, 
and  a  world  without  a  God  —  will  that  content  the 
science  and  satisfy  the  philosophy  of  these  times  ? 
Fill  your  mouth  with  the  east  wind !  Atheism  can 
never  teach  man  that  solemn,   beautiful  word,  —  1 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  '  243 

ou^ht;  only  I  vinst,  which  is  Fatalism;  or  /  icnll, 
which  is  Libertinism;  never  I  oiig-lU,  which  is  the 
mark  of  perfect  obedience,  and  perfect  freedom  too. 
Atheism  knows  not  the  word  Duty  which  marries 
Might  with  Right. 

Well,  shall  we  be  without  religion, — this  Cauca- 
sian race,  which  has  outgrown  the  worship  of  Na- 
ture, Polytheism,  the  Hebrew  form  of  faith,  classic 
Deism,  and  is  fast  outgrowing  this  popular  Theol- 
ogy ?  I  smile  at  the  dreadful  thought.  Shall  the 
great  forces  of  modern  civilization  be  wielded  only 
for  material  ends  ?  Here  is  America,  a  young  na- 
tion, yet  giant  strong,  with  twenty  million  souls  all 
cradled  in  her  lap ;  and  three  million  souls  spurned 
as  dust  beneath  her  cruel  feet.  She  has  set  her  heart 
on  this  continent,  "  I  will  have  all  this  goodly  land," 
quoth  she.  She  has  set  her  heart  on  money,  vulgar 
fame  and  power.  Every  mountain  gives  us  coal, 
iron,  lead,  water  for  our  mill ;  California  delights  to 
tempt  us  with  her  gold.  And  America,  speaking 
with  the  new  and  brazen  trumpet  of  the  State,  says, 
"  There  is  no  Higher  Law  forbidding  me  to  plunder 
Spain  and  Mexico,  or  crush  the  Black  as  I  slew  the 
Red."  Says  America,  through  the  other  trumpet, 
the  old  and  brazen  trumpet  of  the  Church,  "  There 
is  no  Higher  Law  I     Plunder  and  crush  !  " 

Is  that  to  be  so?  Is  modern  civilization,  with 
science  that  formulates  the  heavens  and  reads  the 


244  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

hieroglyphics  of  the  sky,  with  mechanical  skill  which 
surpasses  all  the  dreams  of  faery,  —  modem  civiliza- 
tion, with  such  riches,  such  material  power,  such 
science,  such  physics,  ethics,  metaphysics,  with  Ber- 
lins of  scientific  lore,  with  London,  Paris,  and  New 
York,  affluent  with  energy  —  is  this  to  be  an  irreli- 
gious civilization ;  genius  without  justice,  riches 
without  love,  organization  for  the  strong,  the  rich 
and  the  noble-born,  an  organization  to  oppress,  a 
civilization  without  God  ?  No  !  You  say  no,  and  I 
say  no  ;  human  history  says  no  ;  human  nature  says 
no  I 

What  shall  hinder?  The  popular  Theology? 
The  usurer,  the  politician,  the  kidnapper,  in  their 
selfishness,  laugh  at  your  Old  and  New  Testament, 
and  spurn  at  your  hell.  The  Christian  churches  are 
on  the  side  of  sin  ;  oppression  is  favored  by  them  the 
old  world  through,  and  oppression  is  favored  by 
them  the  new  world  through.  "  Renounce  the 
world!"  says  the  priest,  and  means  "renounce  the 
Higher  Law  of  God."  Soon  as  sin  is  popular  the 
church  christens  it,  and  reiinnexes  the  sin  to  itself. 
Did  the  American  Church  do  aught  against  the 
Mexican  war  ?  Will  it  do  aught  against  the  Cuban 
w^ar  ?  It  will  put  Cuban  gold  into  its  treasury  to 
evangelize  the  heathen.  What  does  it  do  against 
the  awful  sin  of  America  at  this  day  ?  It  has 
strengthened  the  arm  of  the  oppressor :  it  has  riveted 


PRACTICAL   THEISM.  245 

chains  on  the  bondman's  neck.  But  just  now  — 
thanks  to  the  Ahiiighty  God  I  —  the  churches  of 
New  England  and  the  West,  met  in  solemn  convo- 
cation at  Albany,  have  protested  against  this  mighty 
sin  ;  and  have  charged  theij  clergymen  who  went  to 
those  corners  of  the  land  where  the  sin  is  practised, 
to  bear  their  testimony  against  it ;  and  if  men  would 
not  hear  them,  then  to  depart  out  of  their  city.  This 
is  the  first  time  ;  and  it  marks  the  turning  of  the  tide 
which  ere  long  will  leave  this  old  theology  all  high 
and  dry  upon  the  sand,  a  Tadmor  in  the  desert. 

The  religion  which  we  want  must  be  of  another 
stamp.  It  must  recognize  the  Infinite  God,  who  is 
not  to  be  feared,  but  loved  ;  not  God  who  thunders 
out  of  Sinai  in  miraculous  wrath,  but  who  shines 
out  of  the  sun  on  evil  and  on  good,  in  never-ending 
love.  It  must  respect  the  universe,  matter  and  man ; 
and  worship  God  by  natural  piety  and  serve  Him 
with  the  morality  of  nature. 

Then  what  a  force  Religion  will  be !  There  will 
be  a  religion  for  the  body,  to  serve  God  with  every 
limb  thereof;  a  religion  for  the  intellect,  and  we  shall 
hear  no  more  of  "  atheistic  science,"  but  Lalande 
shall  find  God  all  the  world  through,  in  every  scintil- 
lation of  the  farthest  star  he  looks  at,  and  Ehren- 
berg  confront  the  Infinite  in  each  animated  dot  or 
cell  of  life  his  glass  brings  out  to  light;  yea,  the 
chemist  meet  the  Omnipresent  in  every  atom  of 
21* 


246  PRACTICAL   THEISM. 

every  gas.  Then  there  shall  be  a  religion  for  con- 
science, the  great  justice  ;  a  religion  for  the  affec- 
tions, the  great  love  ;  a  religion  for  the  soul,  perfect, 
absolute  trust  in  God,  joy  in  God,  delight  in  this 
Father  and  Mother  too. 

Then  what  men  shall  we  have !  not  dwarfed  and 
crippled,  but  giant  men.  Christlike  as  Christ.  What 
families !  woman  emancipated  and  lifted  up.  What 
communities  !  a  society  without  a  slave,  without  a 
pauper ;  society  without  ignorance,  wealth  without 
crime.  What  churches !  Think  of  the  eight  and 
twenty  thousand  Protestant  churches  of  America, 
with  their  eight  and  twenty  thousand  Protestant  min- 
isters, with  a  free  press,  and  a  free  pulpit,  and  think 
of  their  influence  if  every  man  of  them  believed  in 
the  Infinite  God,  and  taught  that  the  service  of  God 
was  by  natural  piety  within  and  natural  morality 
without ;  that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  imputed 
righteousness,  or  salvation  by  Christ;  but  that  real 
righteousness  was  honored  before  God,  and  salvation 
by  character,  by  effort,  by  prayer,  and  by  toil,  was 
the  work.  Then  what  a  nation  should  we  have ! 
ay,  what  a  world ! 

We  shall  have  it;  it  is  in  your  heart,  and  in 
my  heart ;  for  God,  when  He  put  this  idea  into  hu- 
man nature,  meant  that  it  should  only  go  before  the 
fact,  —  the  John  the  Baptist  that  heralds  the  coming 
of  the  great  Messiah. 


TRACTICAL   THEISM.  247 

'  EteiTial  Truth  shines  on  o'er  errors'  cloud, 

Which  from  our  darkness  hides  the  living  light ; 

Wherefore,  when  the  true  Bard  hath  sung  aloud 
His  soul's  song  to  the  unrecessivc  night, 
His  words,  like  fiery  arrows  must  alight, 

Or  soon,  or  late,  and  kindle  through  the  earth, 

Till  Falsehood  from  his  lair  be  frighted  forth. 

'  Work  on,  oh  fainting  Heart,  speak  out  thy  Truth  ; 

Somewhere  thy  winged  heart-seeds  will  be  blown. 
And  be  a  grove  of  Pmes ;  from  mouth  to  mouth, 

O'er  oceans,  into  speech  and  lands  unknown. 

E'en  till  the  long-foreseen  result  be  grown 
To  ripeness,  filled  like  fruit,  with  other  seed. 
Which  Time  shall  plant  anew  and  gather  when  men  need." 


VII. 

OF  THE  FUNCTION  AND  INFLUENCE  OF  THE 
IDEA  OF   IMMORTAL  LIFE. 


WE  SHALL  ALSO  BEAR  THE  IMAGE  OF  THE  HEAVENLY. 

1   Corinthians  xv.  49- 

I  ASK  your  attention  this  morning  to  a  sermon  of 
the  true  Function  and  legitimate  Influence  of  the 
Idea  of  Immortality.  The  subject  is  most  intimately 
connected  with  the  Theism  lately  spoken  of. 

The  boy  stolen  from  his  mother  by  wolves  in  Hin- 
dostan,  and  brought  up  by  them  with  their  own 
young,  becomes  like  a  wolf.  He  seems  to  have  no 
thought  except  for  the  day ;  his  motives  are  gathered 
only  from  his  present  wants;  no  more.  He  satisfies 
his  animal  appetites,  and  then  sleeps.  Behold  the 
sum  of  his  consciousness  !  He  knows  no  past,  cares 
for  no  future  and  has  nothing  within  him  which 
checks  any  instinctive  desire.  There  is  man  re- 
duced to  his  lowest  terms,  living  from  the  lowest 
motives,   animal   selfishness;    for  the  lowest    ends. 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  249 

animal  existence,  brute  enjoyment;  by  the  lowest 
means,  the  instinct  of  brute  desire.  In  that  case  hu- 
man nature  is  as  poor  as  it  can  live. 

The  cultivated  citizen  of  Boston  extends  his 
thought  in  the  present,  to  all  the  corners  of  the  earth, 
takes  in  all  the  countries  of  the  globe ;  the  doings 
in  Europe  and  in  Asia  affect  his  daily  consciousness. 
He  embraces  the  stars  of  heaven ;  his  telescopic 
thought  sweeps  the  horizon  of  the  universe.  The 
discovery  of  a  new  planet  is  a  joy  to  him,  though 
his  eye  shall  never  taste  its  light.  He  connects  him- 
self with  the  past;  he  remembers  his  father  and 
his  mother,  loving  to  trace  his  branch  of  the  family- 
tree  far  down, —  now  to  a  New  England  sachem, 
now  to  a  Norman  king,  or  till  it  touches  the  ground 
in  some  Teutonic  savage  three  thousand  years  ago. 
He  loves  to  follow  its  roots  under  ground  to  Noah, 
or  Adam,  or  Deucalion,  or  Thoth,  or  some  other 
imaginary  character  in  the  Heathen  or  Hebrew  my- 
thology. Thus  he  enlarges  his  present  conscious- 
ness by  recollecting  or  imagining  the  past,  and  is 
richer  for  every  step  he  takes  in  history  or  fantasy. 
Not  satisfied  with  this,  he  reaches  forth  to  the  future, 
with  one  hand  building  tombs  for  his  grandsires, 
and  with  the  other  houses  for  his  grandchildren. 

Thus  our  cultivated  man  enlarges  his  conscious- 
ness by  the  thought  of  men  that  are  about  him,  be- 
hind him,  and  before  him ;  all  of  these  lay  their 
hands,  as  it  were,  upon  his  shoulders,  to  magnetize 


250  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

him  with  their  manhood,  present,  past,  or  to  come ; 
for  as  there  is  a  long  train  of  men,  our  brothers, 
reaching  out  from  you  and  me  to  the  farthest  verge 
of  the  green  earth,  so  there  is  another  long  train,  six 
hundred  or  six  thousand  generations  deep,  standing 
behind  us,  each  laying  its  hands  on  its  forerunner's 
shoulders,  and  all  communicating  their  blood  and 
their  civilization  unto  us  who  inherit  the  result  of 
their  bodily  and  spiritual  toil. 

It  is  a  delight  thus  to  extend  our  personality  in 
space,  by  knowledge  of  matter  and  man,  and  con- 
trol over  both ;  and  in  time,  by  our  connexion  with 
the  family,  reaching  both  ways,  by  our  relation  to 
the  human  race,  in  its  indefinite  extent  backwards 
and  around  us  on  either  hand.  Human  motives  are 
gathered  from  the  whole  range  of  human  conscious- 
ness and  human  knowledge,  and  our  inward  life  is 
enlarged  and  enriched  by  the  sweep  of  our  intellect. 

So  the  daily  life  of  a  civilized  man  in  Boston 
comes  to  be  consciously  influenced  by  his  wider 
knowledge  of  the  present,  by  his  acquaintance  with 
the  past,  by  his  anticipations  of  the  future.  This 
man  is  checked  from  wrong  and  encouraged  to  good, 
by  the  character  of  his  acquaintances  about  him ; 
some  men  by  recollecting  their  father  and  their 
mother,  whose  names  we  would  not  sully  with  our 
daily  sin.  Almost  every  father  or  mother  is  animat- 
ed by  the  desire  to  bless  his  children  in  generations 
that  are  to  come.     Thus  the  generations  are  bound 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  251 

together,  and  the  personality  of  Jolni  and  Jane  in 
actual  history  is  carried  back  to  the  first  man,  and 
in  fancy  is  carried  forward  to  the  last.  A  grand- 
father in  the  house,  a  baby  in  the  cradle,  a  mother 
at  hand  or  afar  off  in  the  hills  of  Berkshire,  remem- 
bering us  in  her  evening  prayer,  —  each  of  these  is 
a  hostage  for  the  good  conduct  of  mortal  man. 
This  young  man  will  not  dice  or  drink  lest  he  wound 
the  bosom  which  bore  him.  That  young  woman 
denies  herself  for  her  child,  forbears  the  enormities 
of  life  lest  s"lie  should  poison  the  blood  in  the  veins 
of  one  not  yet  born,  or  drinking  life  from  her  breast. 
The  wider  is  the  circle  of  human  observation,  with- 
out or  within,  the  more  plenteous  is  the  harvest  of 
motive  and  delight  gleaned  up  therefrom. 

But  men  go  further  than  that,  and  extend  their 
individual  life  beyond  the  grave.  The  belief  in  the 
future  life  is  at  first  a  dim  sentiment ;  an  instinctive 
desire,  a  dreaming  of  immortality ;  then  the  hope  and 
fear  thereof;  and  at  last  it  is  a  certain  confidence  in 
eternal  life,  an  absolute  delight  in  immortality. 

Thus  successively  the  human  landscape  widens 
out  from  the  wolf's  den  of  that  savage  boy  till  it 
takes  in  family,  neighborhood,  nation,  mankind,  all 
ages  past  on  earth,  all  generations  yet  to  come ;  yes, 
till  our  horizon  of  consciousness  in  its  sweep  in- 
cludes God  and  eternity. 


252  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

There  is  a  God  of  Infinite  Perfection.  The  Soul 
of  each  man  is  destined  to  Eternal  Life.  These  are 
the  two  greatest  truths  which  human  consciousness 
as  yet  has  ever  entertained.  They  are  the  most 
important;  and  if  the  human  treasures  of  thought 
were  to  go  to  the  ground  and  perish,  all  save  what 
some  few  men  grasped  in  their  hands  and  fled  off 
with,  escaping  from  a  new  deluge,  I  should  clutch 
these  two  truths  as  the  most  priceless  treasure  which 
the  human  race  had  won,  and  journey  off  with  them 
to  pitch  my  tent  anew,  and  with  these  treasures 
build  up  a  fresh  and  glorious  civilization.  When  a 
man  is  influenced  by  hope  and  fear  for  the  Future 
World,  he  is  a  higher  being,  much  higher,  than  when 
this  life  was  the  limit  to  his  thought. 

But  the  influence  of  the  Idea  of  Immortality  has 
by  no  means  proved  an  unmixed  good.  It  has 
brought  much  evil  on  the  world.  It  has  been  con- 
nected with  the  idea  that  God  was  malignant ;  and 
then  the  prospect  of  future  life  has  been  the  culprit's 
anticipation  of  trial,  torture  and  damnation  without 
end.  Men  have  believed  that  the  other  side  of  the 
grave  the  Devil  waited,  armed  with  his  torments,  to 
seize  poor  Dives,  who  had  his  "  good  things  in  this 
life,"  and  in  the  next  stage  make  him  smart  for  the 
purple  and  fine  linen  he  wore  in  this.  So  the  con- 
sciousness of  immortality  has  often  clouded  over 
the  future  life  with  fear.     Thus  there  is   a  popular 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  253 

ballad  of  the  Middle  Ages  which  describes  a  boy 
suffering  bereavement,  disease,  poverty,  and  many  a 
grief;  and  he  says, 

"  I  -would  fain  lie  down  and  die, 
But  for  the  curse  of  immortality." 

I  have  heard  ministers  preach  whose  notions  of 
the  future  life  were  of  the  grimmest  sort,  —  so  that 
with  their  belief,  I  would  not  have  sent  a  rat  or  a 
mouse  beyond  the  grave ;  nor  wished  my  worst  en- 
emy to  cross  over,  —  and  yet  they  said  the  com- 
mon notion  of  immortal  life  was  "  too  good  to  be 
true !  "  It  was  too  bad  to  be  true.  I  knew  it  was 
so  bad  that  God  would  blot  it  out  as  a  contradiction 
which  could  not  be,  and  would  never  allow  it  to  be 
a  divine  fact,  only  a  human  folly,  which  those  men 
dreamed  of. 

In  virtue  of  this  fear,  the  belief  in  immortality 
has  secured  to  the  priesthood  an  immense  amount 
of  power,  and  excessive  dominion  over  mankind ;  a 
power  well  nigh  irresponsible,  and  which  has  led  to 
great  cruelty  on  their  part.  The  priest  taught  men, 
"  It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
living  God.  He  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day, 
and  keeps  his  anger  forever."  "  Alas,"  groaned  the 
believer,  "  what  shall  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  Then  the 
priest  replied,  "  /,  and  I  alone,  can  appease  the 
wrath  of  God.  O  selfish  Baron  Hackrent,  full  of 
sin,  and  waiting  to  die,  give  me  thy  money,  give  the 
22 


254  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

church  thy  broad  lands,  or  else  forever  suffer  and  rot 
in  hell !  "  And  the  Baron,  extending  his  selfishness 
beyond  the  tomb,  frightened  at  the  pictui'e  of  the 
"  Last  Judgment "  painted  on  the  walls  of  the 
Church,  or  the  "  Dance  of  Death  "  sculptured  in  the 
grave-yard,  where  Death  and  the  Devil  waltz  and 
saraband  mankind  to  hell,  gave  to  the  priests  the 
riches  which  they  set  their  heart  on,  and  robbed  his 
own  heirs  of  many  a  fair  rood  of  upland  and 
meadow  under  the  influence  of  this  fear  and  of  the 
priesthood  who  fanned  its  dreadful  flame. 

The  thought  of  immortality  has  turned  men  away 
from  natural  religion,  from  natural  morality.  The 
priest  declared,  "  That  will  do  very  well  to  live  with, 
it  is  good  for  nothing  to  die  by."  So  this  belief, 
thus  distorted,  has  led  to  unnatural  modes  of  life ; 
has  crushed  the  delight  out  of  many  a  heart,  and 
has  hindered  the  human  race  in  their  progress. 
Even  now  the  fear  of  death  and  of  torment  sicklies 
over  the  countenance  of  men  when  their  mortal 
hour  draws  nigh ;  tears,  alarm  and  whimpering 
and  snivelling  on  a  death-bed,  are  commonly 
thought  by  ecclesiastical  persons  to  be  better  evi- 
dence of  religion  in  the  heart  than  a  life  forty  or 
fifty  years  long,  adorned  every  day  by  the  beauty  of 
holiness  within  and  the  beauty  of  righteousness 
without. 

All  these  evils  come  from  the  idea  that  God  is 
malignant  and  loves  to  torture  the  children  of  men ; 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  255 

and  that  idea  itself  has  come  from  the  infancy  of 
mankind,  and  like  other  poor  things  is  one  day  to 
be  outgrown  and  left  behind  us  with  the  childish 
things  of  our  boyhood. 

These  evils  continue  at  the  present  day ;  for  God, 
though  called  a  Father,  is  commonly  thought  a  ty- 
rant. So  his  government  of  this  world  is  represent- 
ed as  a  tyrannical  despotism,  and  his  Heavenly 
Kingdom  is  commonly  painted  so  that  ii  is  the  last 
thing  which  one  would  think  of  with  pleasure.  I 
never  saw  a  picture  of  the  "  Last  Judgment,"  which 
did  not  make  me  shiver  with  horror  at  the  thought 
that  any  man  could  be  so  savage  as  to  paint  it.  I 
never  read  a  "  Judgment  Hymn  "  in  a  Psalm  Book, 
from  Origen  of  Alexandria  to  Lyman  Beecher  of 
Boston,  —  even  Luther's,  modified  by  three  hundred 
years  of  civilization  since  his  death  —  which  was 
not  fit  to  make  a  man's  blood  curdle  in  his  veins. 
Only  one  sect  has  taught  the  doctrine  of  immortal- 
ity in  such  a  guise  that  any  man  need  wish  it  to 
be  true  —  the  Universalists  ;  and  that  sect  is  only  a 
small  fraction  of  the  Christian  world.  If  the  com- 
mon notions  of  eternal  life  were  true,  then  we  ought 
to  call  it  eternal  death ;  immortality  would  be  the 
greatest  curse  God  could  inflict  upon  mankind.  It 
is  too  bad  to  be  true.    Annihilation  would  be  better : 

"  Feelingly  sweet  were  stillness  after  storm, 
Though  under  covert  of  the  wormy  ground." 


256  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

In  the  popular  mythology,  God  is  represented  as 
turning  Adam  and  Eve  out  of  Paradise,  with  bitter 
execrations,  — "  Cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy  sake; 
in  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  thy 
life  ;  thorns  also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to 
thee."  Fortunately  that  part  of  the  popular  my- 
thology was  writ  by  a  man  who  makes  no  mention 
of  immortality.  Probably  he  had  never  heard  of  it. 
If  he  had  he  might  have  added  that  God  knit  his 
brows  at  mankind,  baring  his  red  right  hand,  and 
then  said,  "  Eat  also  of  the  tree  of  life  and  live  for- 
ever, and  I  will  torture  you  for  all  eternity."  The 
Hebrew  wiiter  probably  had  not  heard  of  immortal- 
ity; he  did  not  add  that;  he  left  it  for  Christian 
doctors  to  do.  So  in  the  popular  theology  the  Fall 
w^as  the  first  misfortune  of  mankind,  and  Immor- 
tality the  last.  To  die  bodily  was  looked  upon  as 
the  first  curse,  but  to  be  unable  to  die  in  the  soul  is 
looked  upon  as  the  last  curse.  Read  sermons  —  and 
they  are  of  the  commonest  —  on  the  fate  of  the 
wicked  in  the  next  life,  and  they  shall  tell  you, 
almost  all  of  them,  that  the  wicked,  the  reprobate, 
the  damned,  will  call  out  for  the  hills  to  fall  on  us, 
on  the  mountains  to  cover  us ;  and  the  remorseless 
hills  will  not  stir ;  the  unpitying  mountains  will  not 
start  an  inch  ;  man  shall  ask  for  annihilation  and 
have  hell  for  answer. 

Yet  spite  of  this  horrible  doom  prepared  for  man- 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  257 

kind,  as  it  is  alleged,  which  makes  immortality  a 
curse  and  the  thought  of  it  a  mildew,  —  the  doctrine 
is  so  dear  to  the  human  heart,  to  the  reflective  head 
of  mankind,  that  it  is  clung  to,  loved,  believed  in, 
and  cherished,  by  the  mass  of  mankind  all  over  the 
world.  Even  the  churches'  fabled  hell  cannot  fright- 
en mankind  out  of  their  love  for  eternal  life, 

"  This  longing  after  immortality. 

For  who  would  lose 

Though  full  of  pain,  this  intellectual  being, 
These  thoughts  that  wander  through  eternity  1 " 

The  doctrine  of  eternal  life  is  always  popular.  If 
you  were  to  poll  the  world  to-day  and  get  the  ayes 
and  noes  of  all  mankind,  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  out  of  every  thousand  would  give  their  vote 
for  immortality.  Yet  few  have  ever  reasoned  about 
it  much,  and  demonstrated  their  immortality.  Most 
men  think  that  they  take  it  on  trust  from  the  mouth 
of  their  priest,  or  from  "  revelation,"  —  the  Chris- 
tians from  the  Bible,  the  Mahometans  from  the 
Koran.  But  it  is  not  so  ;  we  do  not  take  it  on  trust 
from  a  man.  Like  what  else  comes  from  the  primi- 
tive instincts  of  the  human  heart,  we  take  it  on 
trust  from  the  Father ;  from  no  less  authority. 

I  mention  these  things  to  show  first,  how  deep  is 
the  instinct  of  immortality  in  our  heart,  for  all  na- 
tions above  the  nakedness  of  the  most  savage  have 
22* 


258  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

fastened  their  hopes  on  this ;  they  have  dug  down 
to  this  primitive  rock,  never  very  far  from  the  sur- 
face :  and  next  to  show  how  strong  it  is,  which  even 
the  fear  of  the  future  eternal  torment  cannot  an- 
nihilate. For  sixteen  or  eighteen  hundred  years  the 
Christian  Church  has  preached  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality in  such  a  form  that  it  is  only  another 
name  for  the  wrath  of  God  and  eternal  torment  to 
the  mass  of  men  ;  but  with  all  this  preaching  it 
has  not  preached  the  belief  thereof  out  of  the  heart 
of  man,  and  it  cannot. 

And  yet  dear  as  this  doctrine  is  to  the  heart  of 
mankind,  for  many  hundred  years  you  find  power- 
ful men  of  great  ability  aiming  to  destroy  the  belief 
in  it.  These  philosophers  have  had  a  bad  name  in 
human  history  because  they  denied  what  the  heart 
of  man  loved  to  believe,  what  the  analogy  of  Na- 
ture plainly  taught,  and  what  also  the  highest  philos- 
ophy proves  as  its  very  highest  affirmation.  It  is  a 
strange  thing  that  men  who  have  preached  eternal 
damnation  for  the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  have  a 
good  name  in  every  church,  —  St.  Augustine,  Greg- 
ory,—  half  a  dozen  of  that  name;  —  St.  Bernard,  a 
mighty  preacher  of  eternal  ruin ;  and  in  our  own 
country,  Edwards,  Hopkins,  and  Emmons,  among 
the  most  venerable  names  of  our  American  church. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  men  who  have  declared  that 


IMMORTAL  LIFE.  259 

God  was  too  good  to  persecute  his  children  beyond 
the  tomb,  —  they  have  everywhere  received  a  bad 
name. 

If  a  man  denies  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  his 
oath  is  not  allowed  in  the  courts  of  Christendom. 
Even  in  Massachusetts  he  is  an  "  outlaw,"  and  can 
prove  nothing  in  a  Court  of  "Justice,"  except  by 
the  testimony  of  some  believer.  His  account  books 
are  no  "evidence"  in  court,  his  testimony  of  no 
value.  But  a  man  who  teaches  that  the  God  of  the 
Christians  is  a  thousand  times  more  cruel  than  any 
idol-deity  of  Scandinavia  or  Hindostan,  who  will 
"  torture  with  fire  and  red  hot  plates  of  iron,"  all  but 
ten  in  the  million,  has  his  oath  allowed  him  in  every 
court ! 

But  we  ought  to  look  at  the  reason  which  has  led 
the  philosophers  to  deny  the  doctrine.  Some  of  them 
have  doubtless  been  low  and  vulgar  men, —  as  mean 
as  their  theological  opponents,  —  and  from  lowness 
and  vulgarity  denied  what  their  lowness  and 
vulgarity  hindered  them  from  comprehending.  But 
that  is  a  very  small  class  amongst  philosophic 
men ;  and  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a  low  and  vulgar 
man  flying  in  the  face  of  popular  opinion  for  the 
sake  of  an  idea.  Such  men  preach  the  popular  idea, 
not  the  opposite.  But  it  is  a  fact  of  history  that  in 
old  time,  from  Epicurus  to  Seneca,  some  of  the 
ablest  heads  and  best  hearts  of  Greece  and  Rome 
sought  to  destroy  the  idea  of   immortality.     This 


260  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

was  the  reason  :  they  saw  it  was  a  torment  to  man- 
kind, that  the  popular  notion  of  immortality  was 
too  bad  to  be  true ;  and  so  they  took  pains  to  break 
down  the  Heathen  mythology,  though  with  it  they 
destroyed  the  notion  of  immortal  life.  They  did  a 
great  service  to  mankind  in  ridding  us  from  this 
yoke  of  fear.  The  Pagan  philosopher  and  scoffer 
was  a  "fore-runner"  of  Jesus,  —  quite  as  much  so 
as  John  the  Baptist.  Be  assured  of  this ;  —  it  is  a 
great  thing  to  destroy  an  organized  tyranny,  even  if 
at  first  you  set  up  no  government  in  its  place ;  for 
such  is  the  creative  power  of  the  human  spirit  that, 
if  it  have  a  free  chance  to  work,  it  will  soon  raise  up 
new  Romes  out  of  the  old,  and  leaving  the  monar- 
chies of  the  old  continent  will  build  up  republics  in 
the  new.  After  you  have  hewn  down  the  forest  and 
driven  off  the  catamount  and  the  wolf,  it  is  not  a 
hard  thing  to  raise  corn  and  sheep  in  the  new  soil. 
But  soon  as  Christianity  became  established  in 
the  state,  the  old  tyranny  of  fear  got  set  up  anew ; 
and  as  the  doctrine  of  immortality  appeared  in  a 
more  distinct  form  and  became  more  apparent  in 
the  Christian  than  in  the  Hebrew  or  Heathen  Church, 
so  this  fear  of  future  torment  became  more  distinct 
and  more  powerful ;  yes,  it  became  absolute.  It  was 
connected  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall ;  with  "  fore- 
ordination  by  the  divine  decrees,"  which  is  the  fatal- 
ism of  the  Christian  Church,  —  the  same  thing 
which  had   taken  a   form  slightly  different  in  the 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  261 

Greek  and  Roman  theologies,  and  was  again  to 
appear,  modified  a  little  tother,  in  the  Mahometan 
theology;  —  with  the  idea  of  "total  depravity,"  and 
the  "  infinite  evil "  of  sin ;  and  in  such  bad  compa- 
ny, what  wonder  is  it  that  the  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality became  what  it  did  become  ?  It  was  fear  of 
God,  not  love  of  Him  ;  it  was  fear  of  future  torment 
which  brought  down  the  knee  and  the  neck  of  Chris- 
tian Europe  under  its  priestly  tyrants.  It  was  not 
love  of  God  which  built  the  costly  domos  of  Italy, 
and  the  cathedrals  of  the  North.  No,  it  was  fear  of 
hell.  An  atheistic  pope  wished  to  build  up  a  costly 
church  in  Rome.  He  wanted  money,  —  he  had 
rack-rented  all  Italy,  —  and  so  he  sent  round  his 
apostles,  first  to  preach  the  wrath  of  God,  the  tor- 
ments of  the  future  world ;  next  that  the  priesthood 
had  power  to  appease  that  wrath  and  abate  those 
torments ;  then,  as  a  third  thing,  that  they  would  do 
all  this  for  money.  Monk  Tetzel  went  about  to  sell 
his  indulgences,  — pardons  for  sins  past,  present  and 
to  come.  He  offered  to  ticket  men  all  the  way 
through  to  Heaven  ;  and  they  might  take  any  quantity 
of  luggage  of  sin  with  them,  by  paying  a  small  addi- 
tional fare.  He  had  a  drum  beat;  and  when  men  as- 
sembled he  mounted  his  stand,  opened  his  ticket- 
office  and  began  hawking  and  peddling  his  ecclesi- 
astical wares.  Said  Luther,  "  I  will  make  a  hole  in 
Tetzel's  drum  I  "  --  So  he  did.  "  The  pope,"  said 
Luther,    "cannot   save  men    from   Purgatory;    his 


262  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

tickets  will  not  be  taken  anywhere  on  the  road. 
Keep  your  money  and  renounce  your  sin ! "  The 
sale  of  indulgences  went  down  all  at  once ;  the  mar- 
ket stopped. 

But  the  tyranny  of  fear  was  not  broken :  there 
was  only  one  mode  less  of  escaping  it.  You  could 
no  longer  buy  off  the  wrath  of  God.  There  lay  the 
bottomless  pit,  and  there  was  none  to  ticket  men 
across.  Other  men  undertook  to  make  a  larger  hole 
in  that  same  drum  ;  to  smite  in  both  heads  of  it. 
They  said,  "  The  soul  is  not  immortal :  death  is  the 
end  of  you!"  These  men  labored  to  destroy  the 
Christian  mythology,  just  as  the  old  scoffers  and 
philosophers  had  sought  to  destroy  the  Heathen  my- 
thology. Did  that  denial  satisfy  the  world  ?  Quite 
far  from  it. 

The  world  is  under  great  obligation  to  these 
deniers.  These  "  atheists  "  have  done  mankind  great 
service.  Epicurus,  Pyrrho,  Lucretius,  Bruno,  Vol- 
taire, Paine,  Hume,  are  among  the  benefactors  of 
the  race.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  destroy  a  supersti- 
tion which  rides  men  as  a  nightmare.  But  some  of 
them  were  among  the  most  miserable  of  all  this 
earth's  martyrs  that  I  have  ever  read  of.  There  they 
sat,  surrounded  by  jollity  and  elegance,  wine  and 
scarlet  women,  the  victims  of  circumstances  which 
they  could  not  control.  Their  fate  was  far  more 
pitiful  than  that  of  St.  Sebastian  or  St.  Catharine. 
Who  would  not  rather  be  shot  through  and  through 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  263 

with  arrows,  or  broken  for  once  on  a  wheel  of  iron 
and  wood,  than  be  shot  at  with  doubts  of  im mortal- 
ity and  broken  constantly  with  dread  of  annihila- 
tion ?  Believing  men  who  build  up  a  new  religion 
are  always  harshly  treated,  scourged  in  the  market, 
beaten,  let  down  out  of  windows  in  the  walls  of  the 
city,  shipwrecked,  persecuted,  leaving  their  heads  in 
a  charger,  or  their  bodies  on  a  cross.  They  have  our 
sympathy,  and  deserve  it, — brave  souls  in  hardy 
iron  flesh.  But  the  unbelieving  men  who  broke 
down  the  old  religions,  and  saw  no  other  light  in  the 
dusky  ruin  they  made,  —  they  are  sadder  martyrs  in 
the  world's  great  story !  Drop  a  tear  then  on  the 
grave  of  Voltaire,  on  the  tomb  of  Pomponatius,  and 
on  the  fires  which  consumed  Jordano  Bruno.  You 
and  I  are  made  free  by  their  sufTerings ;  by  their 
sorrows  are  our  joys  made  more  certain.  In  a  bet- 
ter age  Voltaire  might  have  been  as  devout  and  re- 
ligious as  Gerson  or  Luther,  and  Bruno  have  been 
burned  not  as  a  heretic,  but  as  a  Christian. 

The  work  of  theological  destruction  is  not  yet 
over ;  far  enough  from  it.  The  popular  mythology 
must  go  the  same  way  with  the  old  Greek  and  Ro- 
man mythology,  and  other  martyrs  are  doubtless  de- 
manded for  that.  No  Emperor  Julian,  apostatizing 
from  the  progress  of  mankind,  can  save  what  is  false, 
or  destroy  the  true. . 

The  leading  philosophers  of  Europe  seem  to  have 
small  faith  in  immortality ;  some  positively  deny  it ; 


264  IMMORTAL  LIFE. 

a  few  mock  at  it.  Many  of  the  enlightened  Ger- 
mans, whom  oppression  drives  to  America,  deny  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  some  openly  mock  at 
the  hope  of  eternal  life  ;  and  say  all  belief  therein  is 
a  misfortune,  for  it  clouds  over  men's  happiness  now 
with  fear  of  future  torment,  hinders  their  progress, 
and  makes  them  believe  that  virtue  and  justice  are 
not  good  for  their  own  sake,  but  only  as  means  to 
another  end.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  truth  in 
their  objections  no  doubt;  but  they  all  apply  only  to 
a  false  idea  of  immortality  and  a  wrong  use  of  it; 
not  at  all  against  the  true  doctrine  itself  It  seems 
to  me  these  philosophers  wholly  overlook  the  deep 
desire  of  mankind  for  personal  immortality ;  —  the 
natural  belief  which  is  so  general  that  it  is  universal, 
except  in  those  who  have  cultivated  their  intellect 
at  the  expense  of  the  conscience,  the  affections,  or 
the  soul;  or  in  whom,  in  early  life,  some  prejudice 
has  hindered  the  natural  instincts  of  mankind.  They 
forget  what  a  powerful  motive  to  good  it  is,  what  a 
present  enjoyment  it  affords  to  the  human  race  ;  and 
their  denial,  it  seems  to  me,  is  most  unphilosophic. 
And  yet  they  are  doing  the  same  service  now  that 
Zeno  and  Lucretius  and  Lucian  did  for  Christianity. 
They  are  the  forerunners  of  some  better  "dispensa- 
tion "  that  is  to  come. 

I  know  some  men  fear  that  these  bold  deniers  of 
immortal  life  will  destroy  the  belief  of  mankind 
therein.     I  have  no  fear  of  that.     Spite  of  the  Cath- 


IMMORTAL    LIFE.  265 

olic  church,  for  sixteen  hundred  years  preaching  im- 
mortality as  a  curse,  and  the  Protestant  church  for 
three  hundred  years  proclaiming  it  as  a  mildew  and 
blight,  —  men  have  still  entertained  the  belief ;  and 
if  all  the  learned  clergy  of  the  Protestant  world,  if 
all  the  Catholic  clergy  of  the  dark  ages,  could  not 
make  any  considerable  number  of  men  doubt  of 
immortality,  I  do  not  believe  that  a  handful  of  phi- 
losophers speaking  in  the  name  of  philosophy  or 
mockery,  can  ever  put  down  that  which  has  held 
mankind  so  strongly  for  two  or  three  thousand  years. 
Immortality  has  kept  the  field  against  Augustine 
and  Jerome,  the  Basils,  the  Gregories  and  Bernard  ; 
has  held  its  own  spite  of  Aquinas  and  Calvin  and 
Edwards  and  Hopkins  and  Emmons,  and  I  think  it 
can  laugh  at  Strauss  and  Comte  and  Feuerbach. 
Has  it  not  in  its  time  heard  lions  roar,  and  yet  held 
its  own  against  the  hell  of  the  church?  Do  you 
think  then  it  has  any  thing  to  fear  from  the  earth  of 
the  material  philosophers  ? 


We  know  little  of  the  next  life ;  nothing  of 
the  details  thereof.  In  all  the  accounts  of  the  future 
world  which  are  commonly  thought  by  Christians 
and  Mahometans  to  come  from  mkaculous  revela- 
tion, you  see  how  poor  is  the  invention  of  mankind : 
the  basis  of  the  future  heaven  is  always  human, 
earthly.  The  Mahometan  heaven  is  only  what  the 
23 


260  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

Mahometan  wishes  to  make  earth,  a  paradise  of  the 
senses  ;  all  the  passions,  littleness,  and  vulgarity  of 
the  Mussulman  are  carried  thither  and  repeated  on  a 
great  scale.  It  was  so  in  the  Greek  heaven ;  in  the 
heaven  of  the  ancient  Germans.  The  Book  of 
Revelation  in  our  Bible  is  the  work  of  some  bigoted 
Jew,  apparently  not  at  all  improved  by  the  Chris- 
tianity of  his  time  ;  and  its  heaven  is  only  a  New 
Jerusalem,  a  most  uncomfortable  place  for  anybody 
but  male  and  unmarried  Jews.  With  the  Puritans, 
Heaven  was  a  New  Plymouth  or  a  New  Boston, 
where  the  "Elect"  had  the  monopoly  which  they 
wanted  to  get  in  the  old  Plymouth  or  old  Boston, 
but  could  not  quite  accomplish ;  where  all  the  time 
was  Sunday,  and  the  chief  business  was  going  to 
meeting;  the  chief  joy  was  psalm  singing  and  list- 
ening to  Calvinistic  explanations  of  the  Scripture, 
now  and  then  delighting  their  eyes  with  the  sight  of 
their  former  opponents  writhing  in  the  pains  of  dam- 
nation. It  was  the  Puritans'  earthly  life,  idealized  a 
little,  and  made  eternal ;  they  hoped  to  see  their  ene- 
my tortured  in  hell  whom  they  could  not  whip  at  the 
tail  of  a  cart  on  earth.  The  ancient  ghosts,  who 
used  to  be  seen,  and  the  modern  ghosts,  who  are 
now  only  heard,  in  their  "  news  from  Heaven  "  only 
reveal  things  taken  from  our  daily  life.  The  theo- 
logical details  of  the  future  life  are  chiefly  imagin- 
ary, and  drawn  from  our  daily  intercourse  with  com- 
mon things. 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  267 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  we  may  for  a  cer- 
tainty know  this, — that  man  is  immortal;  that  I 
consider  as  fixed  as  the  proposition  that  one  and 
one  make  two.  Then  that  God  is  infinitely  per- 
fect, a  perfect  Cause  and  perfect  Providence.  That 
I  consider  equally  certain  as  that  one  and  one 
make  two.  Of  course  His  infinite  care  must 
extend  over  the  whole  existence  of  mankind ; 
must  make  the  future  life  an  infinite  blessing  for 
mankind  on  the  whole,  an  infinite  blessing  for  every 
human  soul.  This  follows  from  what  has  already 
been  said  of  the  nature  of  God;  for  the  Infinite 
God  must  create  his  work  from  perfect  motives  and 
for  a  perfect  purpose,  form  it  of  perfect  material  and 
provide  it  with  perfect  means  to  attain  the  perfect 
end  He  has  proposed.  Accordingly  his  scheme  of 
things  must  be  so  contrived  as  at  last  to  achieve  per- 
fect welfare  for  the  whole  of  mankind,  and  for  each 
particular  person. 

The  Form  of  the  future  life  we  know  nothing  of — 
whether  man  shall  have  a  body  or  no  body ;  and  if 
a  body,  what  shape  of  body ;  whether  it  shall  resem- 
ble the  human  shape  or  any  other  that  we  can 
imagine.  Man  can  know  nothing  of  that ;  no  more 
than  the  unborn  babe  can  dream  of  the  exploits 
which  it  shall  perform  in  after  years,  in  science,  art 
and  daily  life. 

I  am  glad  that  we  do  not  and  cannot  know  this. 
I  do  not  wish  to  know;  and  if  it  were  possible  for 


268  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

me  to  receive  a  "  miraculous  "  knowledge  of  what 
should  take  place  the  other  side  of  the  grave,  I 
would  say  to  the  being  who  brought  the  tidings, 
"  Stand  back!  I  do  not  wish  to  know."  Time  is 
the  best  fortune  teller.  What  God  has  put  out  of 
man's  power  to  reach,  it  is  not  man's  need  to  have, 
and  it  is  not  his  wisdom  to  gi-asp  after. 

The  notion  of  eternal  misery,  of  punishment  for 
the  sake  of  punishment,  the  doctrine  that  God  ex- 
ploiters the  human  race  and  that  men  are  "  tortured 
for  the  glory  of  God,"  —  that  notion  deserves  all  the 
scorn,  all  the  hate,  all  the  ribaldry,  all  the  mockery 
which  it  ever  met  with  from  Lucian  and  Lucretius, 
from  Pomponatius  and  Voltaire,  from  Thomas 
Paine  and  Ritter  and  Feuerbach :  their  hammer  is 
not  at  all  too  heavy  for  their  hard  work. 

But  the  idea  of  immortality  as  it  belongs  to  the 
absolute  religion,  consistent  with  the  infinite  perfec- 
tion of  God,  —  the  philosopher  need  not  hate  that; 
for  the  belief  therein  is  true  to  the  spontaneous  con- 
sciousness of  human  nature,  to  the  reflective  con- 
sciousness of  philosophy,  and  it  is  of  the  greatest 
value  to  man  as  a  hope,  encouragement,  and  reward. 
Let  me  be  sure  of  two  things,  —  first,  of  Thine  In- 
finite Perfection,  O  Father  in  Heaven  !  then  of  my 
own  Immortality,  —  and  I  am  safe,  I  fear  nothing; 
I  am  not  a  transient  bubble  on  the  sea  of  Time,  I 
shall  outlast  the  "  everlasting  hills,"  I  am  immortal 
as  the  monads  of  matter,  immortal  as  its  laws !     I 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  269 

may  rely  on  myself,  respect  myself,  I  feel  within  me 
the  yearnings  after  immortality,  and  I  know  there  is 
an  Infinite  Heart  which  yearns  infinitely  for  me  and 
will  take  me  to  itself  and  bless  me  at  the  last. 

Then  I  can  rely  on  something  better  than  I  see 
with  my  eyes  —  on  the  Ideal  Excellence  which  I 
think  in  my  heart.  I  can  make  a  sacrifice  for  it ;  I  can 
postpone  my  Now  for  an  immortal  Then  ;  I  can 
labor  for  noble  things  which  it  will  take  a  thousand 
years  to  accomplish.  Things  about  me  may  fail, 
the  mountain  may  fall  and  come  to  nought  and  the 
rock  be  removed  out  of  its  place,  be  exhaled  a  vapor 
to  the  sky,  —  I  shall  not  fail.     I  see 

"  The  soul  is  builded  far  from  accident : 
It  suffers  not  in  smiling  pomps,  nor  falls 
Under  the  brow  of  thralling  discontent ; 
It  fears  not  Policy,  —  that  heretic 
That  works  on  leases  of  short-numbered  hours, 
But  all  alone  stands  hugely  politic/' 

If  to-morrow  I  am  to  perish  utterly,  then  I  shall 
only  take  counsel  for  to-day,  and  ask  for  quali- 
ties which  last  no  longer.  My  fathers  will  be  to  me 
only  as  the  ground  out  of  which  my  bread-corn  is 
grown ;  dead,  they  are  like  the  rotten  mould  of  earth, 
their  memory  of  small  concern  to  me.  Posterity, — 
I  shall  care  nothing  for  the  future  generations  of 
mankind.  I  am  one  atom  in  the  trunk  of  a  tree, 
and  care  nothing  for  the  roots  below,  or  the  branch 
23* 


270  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

above.  I  shall  sow  such  seed  as  will  bear  harvest 
to-day.  I  shall  know  no  Higher  Law :  Passion 
enacts  my  statutes  to-day ;  to-morrow  Ambition  re- 
vises the  statutes,  and  these  are  my  sole  legislators. 
Morality  will  vanish,  expediency  take  its  place.  He- 
roism will  be  gone,  and  instead  of  it  there  will  be 
the  brute  valor  of  the  he-wolf,  the  brute  cunning  of 
the  she-fox,  the  rapacity  of  the  vulture,  and  the 
headlong  daring  of  the  wild  bull; — but  the  cool, 
calm  courage  which,  for  truth's  sake,  and  for  love's 
sake,  looks  death  firmly  in  the  face  and  then  wheels 
into  line  ready  to  be  slain,  that  will  be  a  thing  no 
longer  heard  of.  Affection  will  be  a  momentary 
delight  in  other  men.  The  friendship  which  lays 
down  its  life  for  father,  mother,  wife  or  child,  for 
dear  ones  tenderly  beloved,  which  sucks  the  poi- 
son from  their  wounds,  —  the  philanthropy  which 
toils  and  provides  for  the  friendless,  the  loveless,  the 
unlovely,  and  the  wicked,  —  that  will  only  be  a  story 
of  old  time,  to  be  laughed  at  as  men  laugh  at  the 
tale  of  the  Grecian  boy  who  loved  the  new  moon  as 
his  heavenly  bride. 

But  if  I  know  that  I  am  to  live  forever,  and  when 
yonder  sun  has  seen  the  whole  host  of  heaven  circle 
about  the  centre  of  the  universe  a  million  million 
times,  that  I  shall  still  live  on,  making  a  greater  pro- 
gress in  every  forty  years  than  what  I  have  grown 
to  since  first  I  left  my  mother's  arms;  —  if  I  know 
that  Mankind  will  still  survive  with  ever-greatening 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  271 

faculties  in  some  other  life,  directed  by  the  same 
infinite  Mind  and  Conscience,  and  Heart  and  Soul 
that  made  us  first,  and  guides  us  in  our  heavenward 
march ;  if  I  know  that  each  beggar  in  the  street, 
that  every  culprit  in  the  jail,  or  out  of  it,  or  haling 
men  thither,  has  an  immortal  soul,  and  will  go  on 
greatening  and  beautifying  more  and  more,  —  then  I 
shall  take  the  highest  qualities  which  I  know,  or 
feel,  and  work  with  them  ;  and  I  shall  feel  that  my 
personality  is  one  of  the  permanent  forces  of  the 
universe,  and  shall  work  with  conscious  dignity  and 
loving  awe.  I  shall  respect  myself,  and  so  respect 
each  brother  man. 

In  a  hostile  country  the  enemy  builds  his  house  of 
tent-poles  and  cloth,  to  last  a  single  night ;  pillages 
the  neighborhood,  hews  down  the  tree  to  eat  its  half- 
ripe  fruit,  careless  of  the  toil  which  planted  and  the 
hope  which  waits  therefor;  and  to-morrow  he 
marches  away,  his  city  of  a  night  reduced  to  tent- 
poles  and  canvas,  packed  up  in  his  cart :  a  bit  of 
vari-colored  bunting  on  a  stick,  is  the  symbol  of  his 
nomadic  havoc.  But  the  resident  farmer  carefully 
gathers  and  providentially  plants  the  seed,  and  pains- 
takingly rears  up  the  tree,  prunes  it,  grafts  it,  waits 
his  score  of  years,  and  then,  apple  by  apple,  he 
gathers  its  fruit,  the  soft  for  daily  use,  the  sound  for 
future  store  ;  and  his  broad  barn  of  limestone,  his 
house  of  brick,  and  his  marble  church,  —  these  are 
the  symbols  of  the  resident.     So,  under  the  stimulus 


272  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

of  immortality,  we  shall  cultivate  those  plants  of  the 
soul  which  take  deep  root,  which  require  years,  even 
ages,  to  grow,  and  slowly  bear  their  fruit,  a  blessing 
for  generations  yet  to  come. 

If  I  know  that  I  am  to  live  forever,  in  the  heat  of 
sensual  passion,  I  shall  not  set  my  heart  on  lust  and 
mere  bodily  delight,  —  I  know  something  more  de- 
lightful. In  the  period  of  ambition,  I  shall  not  set 
my  heart  on  gold  only,  or  the  praise  of  men  ;  I  know 
what  is  richer,  I  know  a  fame  better  than  fame.  I 
shall  remember  that  I  am  more  than  passion's  slave, 
or  the  madman  of  ambition  ;  I  shall  give  both  their 
due,  —  passion  its  own,  and  ambition  what  belongs 
thereto.  Riches  and  honor,  —  I  shall  give  them  both 
their  own.  Then  I  shall  go  deeper  down,  and  bring 
to  light  the  brighter  diamonds  which  I  quarry  in  the 
human  mine. 

Consciousness  of  immortality  will  not  lead  to 
contempt  of  this  life,  to  weariness  of  it,  to  neglect 
of  its  duties.  Looking  up,  I  shall  wish  to  set  my 
foot  on  every  round  of  the  human  ladder.  In  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth  the  candle  of  the  Infinite 
will  shine  on  the  habitations  of  cruelty ;  and  I  shall 
see  the  way  to  stdve  them  to  the  ground,  and  then 
build  up  fair-faced  dwellings  for  the  sons  of  men. 

To  the  mortal  eye  this  is  a  sad  world.  What  a 
history  it  is  before  me,  —  looking  out  of  these  four 
thousand  or  five  thousand  eyes  !  What  day-dreams 
of  yours  and  mine  have  broke  into  nothing  I     What 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  273 

toils  unrequited,  what  sorrows  which  the  world  did 
not  know,  —  all  laid  away  in  our  consciousness,  stra- 
tum over  stratum,  deposited  under  tranquil  or  trou- 
bled seas  ! 

Look  at  the  world  ;  —  at  Boston,  with  all  the  sor- 
row which  festers  in  her  heart ;  at  happy  America, 
with  her  dreadful  evils ;  at  Europe,  with  her  France, 
so  high,  and  then  so  low ;  with  her  Germany,  full  of 
contemplation,  —  and  a  chain  on  her  neck;  with 
Italy  and  Spain  ground  under  a  tyrant's  foot ;  look 
at  Asia,  "the  cradle  of  the  human  race,"  the  cradle 
turned  over  and  the  babe  spilled  out ;  —  at  Africa, 
the  nursery  of  the  slaves  of  the  world;  —  at  the 
Isles  of  the  Sea;  —  and  consider  that  man  is  only 
mortal,  and  what  a  spectacle  it  is!  I  should  die 
outright  at  the  thought  of  that  I  But  as  I  know 
that  I  shall  live  forever,  and  that  the  Infinite  God 
loves  you  and  me,  each  man  that  walks  the  ground, 

—  I  can  look  on  these  evils  of  the  world,  on  Amer- 
ica, Europe,  with  her  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain ; 

—  I  can  look  on  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  Islands  of  the 
Sea  ;  —  and  it  is  all  only  the  hour  before  sunrise,  the 
light  is  coming ;  yes,  I  am  also  to  light  a  little  torch 
to  illuminate  the  darkness,  while  it  lasts,  and  help 
until  the  dayspring  come. 

How  heavy  are  the  griefs  of  personal  mortal  life ! 
Health  decays  into  sickness,  hope  into  disappoint- 
ment; death  draws  near  to  our  little  troop  of  pil- 
grims, and  when  we  pitch  our  tent  he  takes  away 


274  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

some  beloved  head,  —  a  baby  now,  then  an  old  man, 
then  a  father  or  a  mother,  a  husband  or  a  wife,  a 
relative  or  a  friend,  —  and  at  last  we  sit  there,  near 
the  end  of  our  pilgrimage,  solitary,  over  our  night- 
fire,  a  few  embers  only  left,  and  they  burning  low, 
and  the  enemy  draws  near  to  quench  them,  then 
clutches  us  and  Vv^e  vanish  also  into  night. 

"  Alas  for  love,  if  this  -were  all, 
And  nought  beyond  the  earth  ! " 

The  Atheist  sits  down  beside  the  coffin  of  his  only 
child  —  a  rose-bud  daughter  whose  heart  death 
slowly  eat  away ;  the  pale  lilies  of  the  valley  which 
droop  with  fragrance  above  that  lifeless  heart,  are 
flowers  of  mockery  to  him ;  their  beauty  is  a  cheat. 
They  give  not  back  his  child  for  whom  the  sepul- 
chral monster  opens  its  remorseless  jaws.  The  hope- 
less father  looks  down  on  the  face  of  his  girl,  silent, 
not  sleeping,  cold,  dead.  The  "  effacing  fingers " 
have  put  out  the  eye,  yet  marble  beauty  still  lin- 
gers there,  and  love,  a  father's  love,  continually 
haunts  the  disenchanted  house.  Atheism  cannot 
speed  it  away ;  affection  has  its  law,  which  no  impi- 
ety of  thought  annuls.  He  looks  beyond,  —  the 
poor  sad  man,  —  it  is  only  solid  darkness  he  looks 
on.  No  rainbow  beautifies  that  cloud;  there  is 
thunder  in  it,  not  light.  Night  is  behind  —  without 
a  star.  His  dear  one  has  vanished,  her  light  put  out 
by  thunderous  death,  not  a  sparklet  left.     There  is 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  275 

110  daughter  for  him  —  but  alas,  ho  is  a  father  still; 
yet  no  father  to  her.  For  her  whose  life  the  blame- 
less baby  took,  long  years  gone  by,  there  is  no  mor- 
tal husband,  no  immortal  mother.  Mother  and  child 
are  equal  now;  each  is  nothing,  both  nothing.  "I 
also  shall  soon  vanish,"  exclaims  the  man,  "  blotted' 
out  by  darkness,  and  be  nothing  —  my  bubble  broke, 
my  life  all  gone,  with  its  bitter  tears  for  the  child 
and  the  mother  who  bore  her,  its  bridal  and  birth-day 
joys,  which  glittered  a  moment  —  how  bright  they 
were,  then  slipped  away,  —  my  sorrows  all  unre- 
quited, my  hopes  a  cruel  cheat.  Ah  me  I  the  stars 
slowly  gathering  into  one  flock,  are  a  sorry  sights 
each  a  sphere  tenanted  perhaps  by  the  same  bubbles, 
the  same  cheats,  the  same  despair  —  for  it  is  a  here 
wdth  no  Hereafter,  a  body  with  no  Soul,  a  world 
without  a  God  !  " 

Hard  by  in  the  same  village,  the  self-same  night, 
a  thoughtful  man,  born,  baptized  and  bred  a  theolog- 
ical christian,  full  of  faith  in  the  popular  mythology 
of  the  churches,  accepting  its  grimmest  ghastliness, 
sits  down  by  the  bedside  of  his  prodigal  son,  his 
only  child,  —  life's  substance  squandered  on  harlots, 
wasted  in  riotous  living.  Death  knocks  at  the  pro- 
fligate's oft  battered  door :  no  syren  shakes  the  wan- 
ton windows  now.  The  last  hour  of  the  impenitent 
has  come.  The  father  looks  on  that  face  so  like  its 
mortal  mother  once,  now  stained  by  riot,  and  scarred 
by  lust,  the  mother's  image  broke  and  crushed  —  as 


276  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

in  the  sack  of  a  city,  a  statue  of  Mary  is  whelmed 
over  from  a  church  portal,  and  thrown  down,  and 
the  fragments  of  shattered  loveliness  are  crunched 
to  dust  'neath  lumbering  cannon  wheels  and  vulgar 
drays,  while  from  the  street  the  artist  eyes  the  shards 
of  beauty  wrought  from  his  dreams  and  prayers. 
The  father  feels  the  breath  of  the  sepulchral  mon- 
ster as  it  slowly  numbs  the  youthful  limbs, — joint 
by  joint,  finger  by  finger,  hand  by  hand ;  he  sees  the 
mist  cloud  over  the  inanimate  and  soulless  eye.  Life 
slowly  ripples  out  from  that  once  manly  heart. 
Telescopic  memory  sweeps  the  horizon  of  the  fath- 
er's consciousness.  He  remembers  the  cradle, — 
bought  with  such  triumph,  —  the  birth-night,  the  little 
garments  previously  made  ready  for  the  expected 
guest ;  the  prayer  of  gratitude  for  the  given  and  the 
spared  when  first  he  saw  his  first-born  son;  he  recalls 
the  day  of  his  marriage,  when  he  stood  on  the  world's 
top  and  Heaven  gave  him  that  angel  —  it  seemed  so 
then  — to  be  loved,  a  real  angel  now,  long  since  gone 
home  to  Heaven,  her  heart  broken  by  the  son's  pre- 
cocious waywardness.  The  father  watches  the  ebb 
of  mortal  life,  it  is  the  flood  of  hell,  bitter,  remorse- 
less, endless  hell;  his  son  sinks  into  damnation  — 
joint  by  joint,  and  limb  by  limb.  Now  he  has  sunk 
all  over !  The  mortal  father  turns  to  religion  for  com- 
fort. Theology  tells  him  of  the  fire  that  is  never 
quenched,  of  the  worm  which  dieth  not,  the  tor- 
ments of  his  child  —  the   smoke  ascending  up  for- 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  277 

ever  and  ever.  Ills  Bible  becomes  a  torment;  —  in 
the  "  many  mansions "  of  its  Heaven  he  knows 
none  for  the  impenitent  prodigal  whom  Death  drives 
from  husks  and  swine.  He  looks  up  after  God ;  a 
grisly  King  makes  the  earth  tremble  at  his  frown  — 
angry  with  the  wicked  every  day,  and  keeping  anger 
forever  ;  there  is  no  Father.  He  turns  to  the  "  Man 
of  Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief,"  asking 
"will  not  Mary's  Son  help  me  in  peril  for  mine  ?  for 
a  sword  pierces  through  my  own  soul  also."  But 
the  Crucified  thunders  "  Depart  from  me  ye  cursed, 
into  everlasting  fire  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels  ;  "  and  all  the  host  of  theological  "  Christians  " 
respond  — "  He  shall  go  into  everlasting  punish- 
ment! Amen!"  For  him  there  is  no  Christ  —  nor 
never  shall  be  one.  Religion  is  a  torment,  immor- 
tality a  curse,  and  God  a  devil !  "  Is  there  no  Mother 
for  my  son  ?  "  he  cries.  The  finger  of  Theology,  hid- 
ing the  morning  star,  points  down  to  hell,  and  the 
voice  of  Night  with  cold  breath  whispers  "  Forever." 
At  the  grave  the  "  Atheist"  and  the  theological 
"  Christian  "  look  each  other  in  the  face ;  one  has 
laid  away  his  daughter  for  annihilation  —  he  is  the 
father  of  nothing;  the  other  has  buried  his  son  in 
eternal  torment,  the  father  of  a  devil's  victim ! 
What  comfort  has  the  one  from  nothing,  the  other 
from  hell  ?  Human  Nature  tells  both  "  it  is  a  lie. 
Atheism  is  here  a  lie ;  the  popular  theology  is  there 
another  lie."     Yes,  it  is  a  lie.     Eternal  morning  fol- 

24 


278  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

lows  the  night ;  a  rainbow  scarfs  the  shoulders  of 
every  cloud  weeping  its  rain  away  to  be  flowers  on 
land  and  pearls  at  sea ;  Life  rises  out  of  the  grave, 
the  soul  cannot  be  held  by  fettering  flesh.  Absolute 
Religion  puts  this  ghastly  theology  to  everlasting 
rest,  the  Infinite  Mother  will  mercifally  chasten,  heal 
and  bless  even  the  prodigal  whom  death  surprised 
impenitent.     Love  shall  cast  out  fear. 

But  conscious  of  the  infinite  perfection  of  God, 
with  the  consciousness  of  immortality  in  my  heart, 
all  this  time  I  smile  through  my  tears,  as  death  con- 
veys in  his  arms,  one  by  one,  the  dear  ones  from  my 
side.  I  see  them  go  up  like  fabled  Elijah  in  his  car 
of  flame,  I  see  their  track  of  light  across  the 
sky,  and  I  am  contented ;  I  am  glad  ;  I  also  shall 
presently  journey  in  the  same  chariot  of  fire,  and  sit 
down  again  beside  the  dear  ones  who  have  gone 
before  ;  — 

"  Nightly  I  pitch  my  moving  tent 
A  day's  march  nearer  home."  — 

And  I  smile  on  it  all,  and  am  a  conqueror  over 
death. 


My  friends,  I  look  at  things  as  they  are,  at  least 
strive  to  do  so,  and  if  I  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  man  was  mortal  only,  I  should  proclaim  my 
conscientious  conclusion,  strongly,  and  clearly,  and 


IMMORTAL   LIFE.  279 

right  out.  If  I  thought  in  my  heart  that  there  was 
no  God,  why,  then  I  should  proclaim  that  odious  con- 
viction. Nay,  if  I  believed  in  the  God  of  the  pop- 
ular theology,  the  God  who  retails  agony  and  damns 
babies,  paving  his  spacious  hell  with  "  skulls  of  in- 
fants not  a  span  long,"  —  that  he  made  religion  a 
torment,  immortality  a  curse,  and  was  himself  a 
devil,  why  I  should  tell  that  too,  —  and  would  never 
hold  back  from  mortal  men  what  I  thought  a  truth, 
howsoever  much  it  might  tear  my  own  heart  to  get 
it,  or  my  lip  to  proclaim  it.  But,  looking  with  what 
philosophy  I  have,  with  what  nature  God  has  given 
me,  I  come  to  the  other  conclusion,  and  wish  only 
that  I  had  poetic  eloquence  to  set  it  forth  till  it  went 
into  every  man's  heart,  and  drove  fear  out  therefrom, 
and  planted  everlasting  life  therein. 

I  see  not  how  any  man  can  be  content  with  blank 
mortality,  to  have  no  consciousness  of  immor- 
tality, no  consciousness  of  God.  —  Chance  I  Fate  I 
Annihilation  I 

"Are  these  the  pompous  tidings  je  proclaim, 
Lights  of  the  world,  and  demi-gods  of  fame  1 
Is  this  your  triumph  —  this  your  proud  applause. 
Children  of  Truth,  and  champions  of  her  cause  1 
For  this  hath  Science  searched,  on  weary  wing, 
By^  shore  and  sea  —  each  mute  and  living  thing  1 
Launched  with  Iberia's  pilot  from  the  steep. 
To  worlds  unknown,  and  isles  beyond  the  deep ; 
Or  round  the  cope  her  living  chariot  driven. 
And  wheeled  in  triumph  through  the  signs  of  heaven  ? 


280  IMMORTAL   LIFE. 

Oh !  star-eyed  Science,  hast  thou  wandered  there 
To  waft  us  home  the  message  of  despair  ?  — 
Then  bind  the  palm,  thy  sage's  brow  to  suit, 
Of  blasted  leaf  and  death-distilling  fruit ! " 

"  What  is  the  bigot's  torch,  the  tyrant's  chain  1 
I  smile  on  death,  if  heavenward  hope  remain ! 
But  if  the  warring  winds  of  Nature's  strife 
Be  all  the  faithless  charter  of  my  life ; 
If  Chance  awaked,  —  inexorable  power !  — 
This  frail  and  feverish  being  of  an  hour ; 
Doomed  o'er  the  world's  precarious  scene  to  sweep, 
Swift  as  the  tempest  travels  on  the  deep  ; 
To  know  Delight  but  by  her  parting  smile. 
And  toil,  and  wish,  and  weep,  a  little  while  ;  — 
Then  melt,  ye  elements,  that  formed  in  vain 
This  troubled  pulse  and  visionary  brain  ! 
Fade,  ye  wild  flowers,  memorials  of  my  doom  ! 
And  sink,  ye  stars,  that  light  me  to  the  tomb  ! " 

But  with  the  consciousness  of  immortality,  with 
a  certain  knowledge  of  the  Infinite  Perfection  of 
God,  the  perfect  Cause,  the  perfect  Providence,  I 
can  do  all  things  :  no  doom  is  hopeless ;  disaster  is 
the  threshold  of  delight. 

"  Nearer  my  God  to  Thee  ! 

E'en  though  it  be  a  cross 
That  raiseth  me, 

Still  all  my  song  shall  be,  ■ — 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee, 
Nearer  to  Thee ! " 


VIII. 

A   SERMON    OF    PROVIDENCE. 


GOD  WILL  PROVIDE. — Gcn.  xxii.  8. 

In  a  previous  sermon  I  have  already  spoken  of 
the  Infinite  God  as  Cause,  and  as  Providence.  But 
the  constant  Relation  of  God  to  the  world  which  He 
creates  and  animates,  is  a  theme  too  important  to 
be  left  with  the  merely  general  treatment  I  have  be- 
stowed upon  it.  Atheism  and  the  Popular  Theol- 
ogy, are  both  so  unphilosophical  in  their  views  of  the 
conduct  of  the  Universe  ;  the  function  ascribed  to 
finite  Chance,  the  Supreme  of  the  Atheist,  in  the  one 
case,  and  to  the  Finite  God,  the  Supreme  of  the 
theologian,  in  the  other,  is  so  at  variance  with  the 
primitive  spiritual  instincts  of  human  nature,  and  so 
unsatisfactory  to  the  enlightened  consciousness  of 
cultivated  and  religious  men,  that  the  subject  de- 
mands a  distinct  and  detailed  investigation  by  itself. 
It  will  require  three  sermons:  —  the  first  going  over 
the  matter  very  much  at  large  and  treating  of  Prov- 
idence in  its  universal  forms,  the  others  relating  to 
the  application  thereof  to  the  various  phenomena  of 
24* 


282  PROVIDENCE. 

evil  —  to  Pain  and  Sin.  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  re- 
peat the  same  thoughts  and  even  the  same  forms  of 
expression,  previously  made  use  of  in  these  sermons. 
I  do  this  purposely,  both  to  avoid  the  needless  multi- 
plication of  terms,  and  the  better  to  connect  this 
whole  series  of  discourses  together. 


The  notion  that  God  continually  watches  over  the 
world  and  all  of  its  contents  is  one  very  dear  to 
mankind.  It  appears  in  all  forms  of  conscious  reli- 
gion. The  worshipper  of  a  fetiche  regards  his  bit  of 
v/5od,  or  amulet,  as  a  special  Providence  working 
magically  and  exceptionally  for  his  good  alone. 
Polytheism  is  only  the  splitting  up  of  the  idea  of 
God  into  a  multitude  of  special  Providences  —  each 
one  a  sliver  of  deity.  Thus  man  has  "  parcelled  out 
the  glorious  name."  The  Catholic  invokes  his  Pat- 
ron-Saint, who  is  only  a  rude  symbol  and  mind- 
mark  of  that  Providence  which  is  always  at  hand. 
Pantheism  puts  a  Providence  in  every  blade  of  grass, 
in  each  atom  of  matter.  The  Epicureans  of  old  time 
denied  the  Providence  of  God  and  dreamed  of  lazy 
deities  all  heedless  of  the  world.  But  their  theory 
is  eminently  exceptional  in  the  theological  world, 
yet  performing  a  service  and  correcting  the  extrava- 
gance of  men  who  run  too  far,  in  devout  exaggera- 
tion attributing  all  to  God's  act. 

In  virtue  of  the  functions  of  Providence  ascribed 


PROVIDENCE.  283 

to  God,  He  is  called  by  various  names :  Lord,  or 
King,  means  providential  Master  ruling  the  world 
and  exploitering  its  inhabitants  for  his  good,  not 
theirs.  That  is  the  favorite  Old  Testament  notion 
and  title  of  God  ;  He  is  King,  men  are  subjects,  or 
even  slaves.  Yet  other  names  therein  appear,  for  the 
Old  Testament  is  not  unitary.  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment, from  his  providential  function  God  is  often 
called  Father,  indicating  the  affection  which  controls 
his  power  ;  that  He  is  not  merely  King  over  subjects, 
and  Lord  over  slaves,  but  a  Father  who  rules  his 
children  for  their  good,  restrains  that  he  may  devel- 
op, and  seemingly  hinders  that  he  may  really  help. 
Hence  in  the  Old  Testament,  slaves  are  bid  to  fear 
God;  in  the  New  Testament,  children  are  told  to 
love  Him.  However,  the  New  Testament  is  not 
more  unitary  in  this  respect  than  the  Old,  and  the 
cruel  God  appears  often  in  the  Gospels,  the  Epistles, 
and  the  Apocalypse,  not  a  Father  but  only  a  Lord 
and  King,  exploitering  a  portion  of  the  human  race 
with  merciless  rapacity. 

A  King  is  bound  politically  to  provide  for  his  sub- 
jects, inasmuch  as  he  is  king ;  political  providence  is 
the  royal  function.  A  father  is  affectionally  and  pa- 
ternally bound  to  provide  for  his  children,  inasmuch 
as  he  is  father ;  affectional  providence  is  the  paternal 
function.  But  as  the  father,  or  the  king,  is  limited 
in  his  powers,  so  the  paternal  or  political  function  is 


284  PROVIDENCE. 

limited ;  for  duty  does  not  transcend  the  power  to 
do.  Their  providence  is  necessarily  imperfect,  not 
reaching  to  all  persons  in  the  kingdom,  or  to  all 
actions  of  their  subject.  A  good  king  and  a  good 
father,  both,  wish  to  do  a  good  deal  more  for  their 
charge  than  it  is  possible  for  them  to  do.  Their 
desirable  is  limited  by  their  possible. 

The  Infinite  God  is  infinitely  bound  to  provide  for 
his  creatures,  inasmuch  as  He  is  infinite  God  ;  in- 
finite Providence  is  the  divine  function,  His  function 
as  God. 

A  Duty  involves  reciprocal  obligation  ;  a  Right  is 
the  correlative  of  a  Duty.  There  is  a  human  Duty 
to  obey,  reverence  and  love  God,  with  our  finite 
nature  ;  but  also,  and  just  as  much,  is  there  a  human 
Right  to  the  protection  of  God.  So  there  is  a  di- 
vine Duty  on  God's  part  —  of  Providence  toward 
man,  as  well  as  a  divine  Right  of  obedience  from 
man.  I  mean  to  say,  as  it  belongs  to  the  finite  con- 
stitution of  man  to  obey,  reverence  and  love  God  — 
the  duty  of  the  finite  toward  the  Infinite ;  so  it 
belongs  to  the  Infinite  constitution  of  God  to  provide 
for  man  —  the  duty  of  the  Infinite  toward  the  finite. 
Obedience  belongs  to  man's  nature,  Providence  to 
God's  nature.  We  have  an  unalienable  lien  upon 
his  Infinite  Perfection. 

I  know  men  often  talk  as  if  God  were  not  amena- 


PROVIDENCE.  285 

ble  to  his  own  justice,  and  could  with  equal  right 
care  for  his  creatures  or  neglect  them ;  that  his  Al- 
mighty power  makes  Him  capable  of  immeasurable 
caprice  and  liberates  Him  from  all  relation  to  Eter- 
nal Right.  Hence  it  is  often  taught  that  God  may 
consistently  make  a  vessel  of  honor  or  of  dishonor 
out  of  this  human  clay,  as  the  potter  does;  or  may 
consistently  jest  with  his  material,  waste  it,  throw  it 
away,  destroy  it,  as  the  potter's  apprentice  does  for 
sport  in  some  moment  of  caprice ;  or  may  break  the 
finished  vessels  as  the  potter  himself  does  when 
drunk,  or  angry.  In  virtue  of  this  general  notion,  it 
is  popularly  taught  in  all  Christendom,  that  God 
will  thus  waste  some  of  his  human  clay,  casting 
human  souls  into  endless  misery;  and  in  the  greater 
part  of  Christendom  it  is  taught  that  He  will  des- 
troy the  majority  of  mankind  in  this  way ;  that  He 
has  a  natural  Right  to  do  so,  and  man  has  no  Right 
to  any  thing  but  the  caprice  of  God. 

This  doctrine  is  odious  to  me  ;  and  I  see  not  how 
men  can  entertain  such  an  idea  of  God,  and  still 
call  Him  good.  This  doctrine  is  equally  detestable 
whether  you  consider  it  in  relation  to  the  condition 
of  men  consequent  thereon,  or  to  the  character  of 
God  which  causes  that  condition.  This  false  idea 
tends  to  unsettle  men's  moral  convictions.  The  con- 
sequence appears  in  various  forms.  The  State 
teaches  in  practice  that  national  Might  is  national 
right ;  that  so  far  as  the  state  is  concerned  there  is 


286  PROVIDENCE. 

no  right  and  no  wrong ;  whatever  it  may  will  is  jus- 
tice, the  nation  not  amenable  to  moral  law.  The 
Church  theoretically  teaches  that  Infinite  Might  is 
infinite  right;  that  God  repudiates  his  own  justice; 
that  so  far  as  God  is  concerned  there  is  no  right,  no 
wrOi-g;  with  Him  caprice  stands  for  reason.  The 
atheist  agrees  with  the  theologians  in  this,  only  he 
rejects  the  ecclesiastical  phraseology,  knowing  no 
God. 

I  will  not  speak  of  mercy,  commonly  conceived  of 
as  the  limitation  of  might,  strong  manly  justice  ob- 
structed by  womanly  sentiment  and  weakness.  But 
speaking  of  bare  justice  I  say,  that  from  the  idea  of 
God  as  Infinite  it  follows  that  He  has  no  right  to  call 
into  being  a  single  soul  and  make  that  soul  misera- 
ble for  its  whole  life ;  or  to  inflict  upon  it  any  abso- 
lute and  unrecompensed  evil;  no  right  to  call  into 
life  a  single  worm  and  make  that  worm's  life  a  curse 
to  itself.  It  is  irreverent  and  impious  to  teach  that 
He  could  do  this.  It  is  a  plain  contradiction  to  the 
idea  of  God.  It  is  as  impossible  for  Him  to  create 
any  thing  from  an  imperfect  motive,  for  an  imperfect 
purpose,  of  imperfect  material,  or  as  imperfect 
means,  as  it  would  be  for  Him  to  make  right,  wrong, 
the  same  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be,  or  one  and  one, 
not  two,  but  two  thousand.  I  as  finite  man  am 
amenable  to  the  laws  of  my  finite,  human  nature  ; 
He  as  Infinite  God  to  the  laws  of  his  infinite,  divine 
nature.     To  say  that  God  has  a  right,  or  a  desire,  to 


PROVIDENCE.  287 

repudiate  his  infinite  justice,  that  He  will  do  it,  or 
that  as  God  He  can,  is  as  absurd  as  to  say  that  He 
will  and  can  make  one  and  one  two  thousand  and 
not  two.  And  to  me  it  seems  as  impious  as  to  say 
there  is  no  God.  Indeed  it  is  a  denial  of  God,  not 
a  neofation  of  his  existence,  but  of  the  very  sub- 
stance  of  his  being. 

Now  from  the  infinite  perfection  of  God  it  follows 
that  his  Providence  is  infinite,  that  is,  completely 
perfect  and  perfectly  complete ;  that  as  Cause  and 
Providence  He  works  continually  to  bless  his  crea- 
tures, and  only  to  bless  them. 

This  must  be  so  :  for  the  opposite  could  only  come 
from  a  defect  of  wisdom  —  He  did  not  know  how  to 
bring  about  their  welfare;  from  a  defect  of  justice  — 
He  did  not  will  their  welfare ;  from  a  defect  of  love 
—  He  did  not  desire  it;  from  a  defect  of  power  — 
He  could  not  bring  it  to  pass ;  or  a  defect  of  holi- 
ness —  He  would  not  use  the  power,  love,  justice 
and  wisdom  for  his  creatures'  sake.  This  might  be 
said  of  conceptions  of  God  as  finite,  — of  Baal,  Mel- 
karth,  Jupiter,  Odin,  Jehovah  ;  never  of  the  Infinite 
God ;  He,  inasmuch  as  He  is  God,  must  exercise  an 
infinite  Providence  over  each  and  all  his  works.  The 
universe,  that  is,  the  sum  total  of  created  matter  and 
created  mind,  must  be  perfectly  fitted  to  achieve  the 
purpose  which  God  designs  ;  that  must  be  a  benev- 
olent purpose,  involving  the  greatest  possible  bliss 


288  PROVIDENCE. 

for  each  and  all,  for  the  Infinite  God  could  desire 
no  other  end. 

From  this  it  follows  that  the  material  part  of  the 
universe,  and  its  spiritual  part  also,  must  be  perfectly 
adapted  to  this  end.  A  perfect  whole,  material  or 
spiritual,  consists  of  perfect  parts,  each  answering  its 
several  purpose,  and  so  the  whole  fulfilling  the  pur- 
pose of  the  whole.  No  part  must  be  lost ;  no  part 
absolutely  sacrificed  to  the  good  of  another,  or  of  all 
others,  and  to  its  own  harm  and  ruin. 

All  this  follows  unavoidably  from  the  idea  of 
God  as  infinitely  perfect.  Starting  from  this  point 
all  seems  plain.  But  concrete  things  often  seem  im- 
perfect because  they  do  not  completely  serve  our 
transient  purpose,  while  we  know  not  the  eternal 
purposes  of  God.  We  look  at  the  immediate  and 
transient  result,  not  at  the  ultimate  and  permanent. 
Thus  the  mariner  cannot  come  to  port  by  reason  of 
the  storm  and  rocks  \vhich  obstruct  his  course ;  he 
thinks  the  weather  imperfect,  the  world  not  well 
made,  and  you  often  hear  men  say,  "  How  beautiful 
the  world  would  be  if  there  were  no  storms,  no  hur- 
ricanes, no  thunder  and  lightning."  While  if  we 
could  overlook  the  cosmic  forces  which  make  up  the 
material  world,  we  should  see  that  every  actual 
storm  and  every  rock  was  needful ;  and  the  world 
would  not  be  perfect  and  accomplish  its  function 
had  not  each  been  just  in  its  proper  time  and  place. 


PROVIDENCE.  289 

An  oak  tree  in  the  woods  appears  quite  imperfect. 
The  leaves  are  coiled  up  and  spoiled  by  the  leaf- 
roller  ;  cut  to  pieces  by  the  tailor-beetle,  eaten  by 
the  hag-moth  and  the  polyphemus,  the  slug  cater- 
pillar and  lier  numerous  kindred;  the  twigs  are 
sucked  by  the  white-lined  tree-hopper,  or  cut  off  by 
the  oak-pruner ;  large  limbs  are  broken  down  by  the 
seventeen-year-locust;  the  horn-bug,  the  curculio 
and  the  timber-beetle  eat  up  its  wood ;  the  gad-fly 
punctures  leaf  and  bark,  converting  the  forces  of  the 
tree  to  that  insect's  use  ;  the  grub  lives  in  the  young 
acorn ;  fly-catchers  are  on  its  leaves ;  a  spider 
weaves  his  web  from  twig  to  twig ;  caterpillars  of 
various  denominations  gnaw  its  tender  shoots ;  the 
creeper  and  the  wood-pecker  bore  through  the  bark ; 
squirrels  —  striped,  flying,  red  and  gray  —  have 
gnawed  into  its  limbs  and  made  their  nests;  the 
toad  has  a  hole  in  a  flaw  of  its  base ;  the  fox  has 
cut  asunder  its  fibrous  roots  in  digging  his  burrow ; 
the  bear  dwells  in  its  trunk  which  worms,  emmets, 
bees  and  countless  insects  have  helped  to  hollow; 
ice  and  the  winds  of  winter  have  broken  off  full  many 
a  bough.  How  imperfect  and  incomplete  the  oak- 
tree  looks,  so  broken,  crooked,  cragged,  gnarled  and 
grim  I  The  carpenter  cannot  get  a  beam,  the  mill- 
wright a  shaft,  or  the  ship-builder  a  solid  knee  for 
his  purpose ;  even  the  common  woodman  spares 
that  tree  as  not  worth  felling ;  it  only  cumbers  the 
ground.  But  it  has  served  its  complicated  purpose  ; 
25 


290  PROVIDENCE. 

given  board  and  lodging  to  all  these  creatures,  from 
the  ephemeral  fly,  joying  in  his  transient  summer, 
to  the  brawny  bear  for  many  a  winter  hibernating 
in  its  trunk.  It  has  been  a  great  woodland  caravan- 
sary, even  a  tavern  and  chateau,  to  all  that  hetero- 
geneous swarm ;  and  though  no  man  but  a  painter 
thinks  it  a  perfect  tree,  —  and  he  only  because  the 
picturesque  thing  serves  his  special  purpose,  —  no 
doubt  the  good  God  is  quite  contented  with  his  oak, 
and  says,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 
He  designed  it  to  serve  these  manifold  uses,  and  to 
furnish  beauty  for  the  painter's  picture  and  meaning 
for  the  preacher's  speech.  Doubtless  it  enters  into 
the  joy  of  its  Lord,  having  completely  served  his 
purpose ;  He  wanted  a  caravansary  and  chateau  for 
those  uncounted  citizens.  To  judge  of  it  we  must 
look  at  all  these  ends,  and  also  at  the  condition  of 
the  soil  that  had  a  superabundance  of  the  matter 
whereof  oak-trees  are  made. 

We  commonly  look  on  the  world  as  the  carpenter 
and  mill-wright  on  that  crooked  oak,  and  because  it 
does  not  serve  our  turn  completely  we  think  it  an 
imperfect  world.  Thus  men  grumble  at  the  rocky 
shores  of  New  England,  its  sterile  soil,  its  winters 
long  and  hard,  its  cold  and  biting  spring,  its  sum- 
mers brief  and  burning,  and  seem  to  think  the  world 
is  badly  put  together.  They  complain  of  wild 
beasts  in  the  forests,  of  monsters  in  the  sea,  of  toads 
and  snakes,  vipers  and  many  a  loathsome  thing  — 


PROVIDENCE.  291 

hideous  to  our  imperfect  eye.  How  little  do  we 
know !  a  world  without  an  alligator,  or  a  rattle- 
snake, a  hyfcna,  or  a  shark,  would  doubtless  be  a 
very  imperfect  world.  The  good  God  has  some- 
thing for  each  of  these  to  do ;  a  place  for  them  all  at 
his  table,  and  a  pillow  for  every  one  of  them  in 
Nature's  bed. 

Though  Theologians  talk  of  the  infinite  goodness 
of  God  and  the  perfection  of  his  providence,  they 
have  yet  a  certain  belief  in  a  devil ;  even  if  it  is  not 
always  a  personal  devil,  at  any  rate  it  is  a  Principle 
of  Absolute  Evil,  which  they  fear  will,  somehow, 
out-wit  and  override  God,  getting  possession  of  the 
world  ;  will  throw  sand  into  the  delicate  watch-work 
of  the  universe  and  completelythwart  the  providence 
of  the  Eternal. 

This  comes  from  that  dark  notion  of  God  which 
haunts  the  theology  of  Christendom  ;  yea,  of  the 
Hebrew,  the  Mahometan,  and  Hindoo  world.  It  is 
painful  to  see  how  this  notion  prevails  amongst 
intelligent  and  religious  men.  They  tell  you  of  the 
greater  activity  of  the  Evil  Principle  ;  they  see  it  in 
the  insects  which  infest  the  grain  and  fruit  trees  of 
New  England,  forgetting  that  God  takes  care  of 
these  insects  as  well  as  of  man.  When  we  study 
deeper,  we  see  that  there  is  no  evil  principle,  but  a 
good  principle,  so  often  misunderstood  by  men.  If 
we  start  with  the  idea  of  the  infinite  God  we  know 


292  PROVIDENCE. 

the    purpose    is    good    before  we  comprehend   the 
means  thereto. 


There  are  two  ways  in  which  men  assert  the 
doctrine  of  God's  Providence,  two  philosophical  and 
antagonist  doctrines  thereof. 

T.  One  makes  God  the  only  will  in  creation  ;  ani- 
mals are  mere  machines,  wholly  subordinate  to  their 
organization ;  man  is  also  a  mere  machine,  wholly 
subordinate  to  his  organization.  Thus  all  the  action 
in  the  world,  material  and  spiritual,  is  the  action  of 
God.  The  universe  consists  of  two  parts,  one  real, 
the  other  phenomenal.  First,  there  is  God  the 
Actor ;  next,  a  parcel  of  tools  or  puppets,  wholly 
passive,  having  no  will  or  life  of  their  own  ;  and 
with  these  God  works,  or  plays.  On  this  supposi- 
tion his  Providence  has  a  clean  sweep  of  the  uni- 
verse;  every  sentiment,  good  or  bad;  every  thought, 
true  or  false ;  every  deed,  blessing  or  baneful,  is  his 
work.  The  sun  is  an  unconscious  instrument  of 
God ;  I  am  a  conscious  instrument,  but  still  a  bare 
tool  in  God's  hand,  not  a  free  agent. 

This  comprehensive  scheme,  reducing  life  to  me- 
chanism, appears  in  many  forms.  It  belongs  to  the 
gross  philosophy  of  the  materialist ;  it  is  the  cardi- 
nal doctrine  of  the  pantheist,  material  or  spiritual, 
the  most  offensive  and  dangerous  of  his   doctrines. 


PROVIDENCE.  293 

It  is  the  great  idea  with  the  fatalists  of  all  classes. 
But  it  appears  in  the  theological  sects  also,  as  well 
as  in  philosophic  parties  ;  for  man  cannot  escape 
from  his  first  principle,  neither  in  philosophy  nor  in 
theology.  It  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  Catholic  and 
Protestant  theology.  Calvin  and  d'Holbach  agree 
in  this.  The  contradiction  it  leads  to  is  plain  in  the 
preaching  and  writings  of  almost  every  Calvinistic 
or  Catholic  Theologian  who  tries  to  reconcile  his 
theology  with  the  common  facts  of  consciousness. 
Now  he  tells  you  you  must  do  for  yourself  and  then 
God  will  help  you  ;  but  adds  you  can  do  nothing  till 
God  begins  it  for  you.  The  popular  hymn  contains 
the  same  contradiction, 

"  Bound  on  a  voyage  of  awful  length, 
Through  dangers  little  known, 
A  stranger  to  superior  strength, 
Man  vainly  trusts  his  own. 

"  But  oars  alone  will  not  prevail 
To  reach  the  distant  coast ; 
The  breath  of  Heaven  must  swell  the  sail, 
Or  all  the  work  is  lost." 

But  in  Dr.  Hopkins  and  Dr.  Emmons  and  their 
followers  and  predecessors,  as  well  Protestant  as 
Catholic,  this  doctrine  is  carried  out  to  its  natural 
results  :  in  defiance  of  consciousness ;  they  boldly  and 
simply  declare  that  God  is  the  direct  author  of 
every  thought  and  feeling,  will  and  deed.  It  is 
25* 


294  PROVIDENCE. 

curious  to  see  how  men  reach  the  same  result,  start- 
ing from  opposite  points;  curious  to  see  how  An- 
tinomianism  —  Catholic  or  Protestantj —  arrives  at 
the  most  objectionable  characteristic  of  Pantheism^ 
which  it  yet  so  abhors. 

On  this  hypothesis  the  function  of  Providence  ap- 
pears quite  simple :  all  action  is  God's  action. 
The  phenomenal  actor  may  be  human,  but  the  only 
real  agent  is  God,  For  example  :  Cain  kills  Abel 
with  a  club,  the  spite  of  his  heart  flashing  from  his 
angry  eye.  That  is  the  phenomenon.  But  the  fact 
is,  God  killed  Abel  with  Cain's  arm ;  Cain  and  the 
club  were  equally  passive  instruments  in  the  hand  of 
God.  Here  the  intervention  of  Cain,  with  his  mali- 
cious sentiment  and  flashing  eye,  is  only  a  part  of 
the  stage  machinery,  for  theatrical  effect,  but  the  con- 
triver and  worker  of  it  all  is  God.  His  ways  are 
simple :  matter  and  man  have  really  nought  to  do. 
This  doctrine  shocks  common  sense  and  is  at  war 
with  the  consciousness  of  every  man.  It  is  emi- 
nently at  war  with  religious  feeling ;  for  on  this  sup- 
position actual  suffering  and  sin  are  of  no  human 
value ;  they  lead  to  nothing ;  it  is  in  vain  for  the 
grass  to  grow,  the  human  hay  is  cut  and  dried  by 
foreordination. 

II.  The  other  doctrine  of  Providence  makes  man's 
will  free,  absolutely  free,  not  at  all  conditioned  by 
circumstances,  bodily  organization  and  the  like. 
The  philosophical  question  of  freedom  and  necessity 


PROVIDENCE.  295 

I  do  not  design  to  enter  upon.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  questions  in  metaphysics,  and  I  certainly  am 
not  able  to  solve  the  riddle.  There  are  difficulties  in 
either  hypothesis,  and  I  have  not  psychological 
science  enough  to  explain  them  in  the  court  of  intel- 
lect. Philosophy  is  intellect  working  in  the  mode  of 
art ;  common  sense  is  intellect  working  after  its  nat- 
ural instinct,  not  in  the  technical  mode  of  art.  Phi- 
losophy demonstrates ;  common  sense  convinces 
without  demonstration.  In  default  of  philosophy, 
we  must  follow  common  sense  ;  that  does  not  settle 
the  matter  scientifically  and  ultimately,  but  prac- 
tically and  provisionally,  subject  to  revision  in 
another  court.  But  common  sense  decides  in  favor 
of  freedom.  Every  man  acts  on  that  supposition  ; 
and  supposes  that  other  men  are  likewise  free. 
Courts  of  law  proceed  on  this  hypothesis;  public 
opinion  distributes  praise  or  blame;  my  own  con- 
science commends,  or  else  cries  out  against  me.  I 
am  conscious  of  freedom. 

But  a  little  experience  shows  that  this  freedom 
has  its  limitations  and  is  not  absolute.  It  is  condi- 
tioned on  every  side,  —  by  my  outward  circumstan- 
ces, the  events  of  my  history,  the  accidents  of  edu- 
cation, the  character  of  my  parents  and  daily  asso- 
ciates;  by  the  constitution  of  my  body — its  varying 
health,  hunger  and  thirst,  youth,  manhood  and  old 
age.  In  comparison  with  a  shad-fish,  or  a  blackbird, 
Socrates  has  a  good  deal  of  freedom,  and  is  not  so 


296  PROVIDENCE. 

much  subordinate  to  his  organization,  or  his  cir- 
cumstances, as  they ;  but  in  comparison  with  the 
infinite  freedom  of  God  his  volitiveness  is  little. 
To  speak  figuratively,  it  seems  as  if  man  was  tied 
by  two  tethers  —  the  one  of  historic  circumstance,  the 
other  of  his  physical  organization  —  fastened  at  oppo- 
site points,  but  the  cord  is  elastic  and  may  be  length- 
ened by  use,  or  shortened  by  abuse  and  neglect ;  and 
within  the  variable  limit  of  his  tether  man  has  free- 
dom, but  cannot  go  beyond  it.  Still  further,  to  car- 
ry out  the  figure,  one  man  gets  entangled  in  his  con- 
fining line  and  does  not  use  half  the  freedom  he 
might  have ;  another  continually  extends  it  and  be- 
comes more  free. 

It  is  plain,  that  however  these  circumstances 
may  or  may  not  limit  our  ideas,  or  will,  they  must 
determine  the  form  of  our  conceptions  and  our  pow- 
er to  execute  them  in  works. 

On  the  hypothesis  that  man  is  absolutely,  or  par- 
tially free,  the  function  of  Providence  is  much  more 
complicated.  There  are  primary  and  secondary 
powers ;  there  are  other  agents  beside  God,  using 
the  power  derived  from  Him  to  work  with  after  their 
own  caprice :  so  God  acts  in  part  by  means  of  the 
free  will  of  men.  This  theory  seems  to  me  con- 
formable to  common  sense  and  common  conscious- 
ness, and  is  perhaps  the  most  philosophic  of  any  that 
has  yet  been  arrived  at. 

So  much  for  these  two  theories  of  Providence. 


PROVIDENCE.  297 

There  are  two  modes  in  which  God's  providence 
is  commonly  supposed  to  act,  namely,  the  General 
and  the  Special. 

God's  general  providence,  it  is  said,  takes  in  the 
greater  part  of  cases  in  the  material  and  spiritual 
world,  and  provides  for  them.  In  his  general  provi- 
dence God  is  thought  to  accomplish  his  function  by 
general  laws,  which  are  a  constant  mode  of  opera- 
tion, representing  the  continual  and  inferior  activity 
of  God  ;  but  this  does  not  extend  to  all  cases.  God's 
special  providence  attends  to  particular  cases,  not 
otherwise  provided  for,  and  disposes  of  them.  One 
is  a  court  of  common  or  statute  law,  the  other  a 
court  of  equity.  In  special  providence  God  is  sup- 
posed not  to  act  by  general  laws,  but  without  them, 
or  against  them.  All  normal  action  in  Nature 
comes  from  general  providence  ;  all  Miracles  from 
special  providence.  Thus  a  freshet  in  the  Connecti- 
cut, and  the  annual  rising  of  the  Nile,  belong  under 
the  general  providence  of  God  and  come  by  the 
action  of  steadfast  laws ;  but  the  miraculous  Flood 
in  the  time  of  Noah  came  of  God's  special  provi- 
dence, having  no  cause  in  Nature,  only  in  the  caprice 
of  God.  This  form  of  special  providence  in  Nature 
is  known  only  to  the  theologian,  not  to  the  man  of 
science. 

To  take  examples  from  human  affairs,  it  is  main- 
tained that  God's  general  providence  waited  on  the 
whole  human  race,  but  the  Hebrews  were  under  his 


298  PROVIDENCE. 

special  providence,  and  He  went  so  far  in  their  case 
as  to  make  a  contract  with  Abraham,  which  St.  Paul 
thought  He  was  under  an  obligation  to  keep,  and 
could  not  invalidate. 

All  men  in  general  are  under  the  general  provi- 
dence, but  Christians  enjoy  the  special  providence  of 
God,  or  as  Dr.  Watts  has  it, 

"  The  whole  creation  is  thy  charge, 
But  saints  are  thy  peculiar  care." 

It  is  said  that  the  forms  of  religion  in  China,  India, 
Egypt,  Greece  and  Mexico,  came  by  the  general 
providence  of  God,  growing  out  of  the  nature  of 
man,  or  coming  at  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  hav- 
ing their  root  in  the  human  or  the  infernal  nature  ; 
while  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian  forms  of  reli- 
gion came  by  his  special  providence,  started  in  God, 
and  were  miraculously  transplanted  to  human  soil. 
Certain  Christians  are  thought  still  more  eminent- 
ly under  God's  special  providence.  They  are  the 
"  elect,"  and  the  world  was  made  for  them.  The 
Mahometan  thinks  the  same  of  his  form  of  religion 
and  of  the  elect  Mussulmans.  Christian  theologians 
say  that  saints,  the  elect,  share  the  "  covenanted 
mercies "  of  God  and  are  favorites,  enjoying  his 
special  providence,  while  the  rest  of  men  are  left  to 
his  "  uncovenanted  mercies,"  and  have  need  to 
tremble.  The  governor  of  Massachusetts  a  few 
years  ago,  in  his  proclamation  for  a  day  of  fasting, 


PROVIDENCE.  299 

invited  men  to  pray  God  to  bless  the  whole  United 
States  in  general,  but  to  have  "  a  special  care  of  the 
good  State  of  Massachusetts."  The  Hebrews,  think- 
ing God  cared  nothing  for  the  Gentiles,  praised  Ilim 
saying,  "  Thou  didst  march  through  the  land  in  in- 
dignation. Thou  didst  thrash  the  heathen  in  anger; 
thou  wentest  forth  for  the  salvation  of  thy  people ; " 
"  Thou  didst  drive  out  the  heathen  with  thine 
hand." 

So  Christians  think  God  has  his  favorites  amongst 
men,  and,  like  a  partial  father,  takes  better  care  of 
some  of  his  children  than  of  the  rest ;  you  and  I 
share  his  common  concern  and  are  under  his  general 
laws;  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  his  special  care  and 
was  under  special  laws.  It  would  be  thought  a 
great  impiety  to  suppose  that  God  felt  as  much  con- 
cern for  Jadas  as  for  Jesus,  and  would  no  more 
suffer  the  son  of  Simon  to  be  ultimately  lost,  than 
the  son  of  Mary.  Yet  if  you  think  twice  you  will 
see  that  the  impiety  is  on  the  other  side ;  for  if  God 
does  not  care  as  much  for  Iscariot  as  for  Christ,  as 
much  desiring  and  insuring  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
the  one  as  the  other,  then  He  is  not  the  Infinite 
Father  whose  w^ays  are  equal  to  all  his  children,  but 
partial,  unjust,  cruel,  wdcked  and  oppressive.  You 
do  not  think  so  well  of  the  British  government  be- 
cause it  neglects  its  feeblest  subjects,  the  laboring 
millions,  making  England  the  paradise  of  the  rich 
and  strong,  the  purgatory  of  the  wise  and  good,  and 


300  PROVIDENCE. 

the  hell  of  the  poor  and  weak.  You  condemn  the 
government  of  the  United  States  because  it  has  its 
favorites,  and  oppresses  and  enslaves  the  feeblest  of 
its  citizens  to  increase  the  riches  of  indolent  and 
cruel  men.  You  would  not  employ  a  schoolmaster 
who  turned  off  the  dull  boys  and  beat  the  bad  ones, 
disposed  to  truancy  and  mischief,  dris^ing  them  out 
into  the  streets  to  swelter  in  crime,  to  fester  in  jail,  or 
rot  on  the  gallows.  What  indignation  would  suffice 
towards  a  mother  who  neglects  a  backward  boy, 
takes  no  pains  with  the  girl  that  is  a  cripple,  or  with 
a  son  who  has  an  organic  and  hereditary  tendency 
to  dissipation  and  licentiousness  ?  I  do  not  like  to 
say  a  man  is  impious  without  proof  that  he  means 
it;  but  to  attribute  so  base  a  character  and  such  un- 
just conduct  to  God  as  you  would  not  respect  in  a 
government,  allow  in  a  schoolmaster,  or  endure  in 
a  mother,  is  thoughtless,  to  say  the  least  of  it.  But 
that  is  the  common  idea  of  God  in  the  Christian 
churches,  and  the  common  idea  of  his  providence. 

The  modern  notion  of  a  special  providence, 
wherein  God  acts  without  law  or  against  law,  is  the 
most  spiritual  and  attenuated  form  of  the  doctrine 
of  miracles,  the  last  glimmering  of  the  candle  before 
it  goes  out.  Men  who  give  up  the  miraculous  birth 
of  Jesus  still  claim  that  he  was  under  the  special 
providence  of  God.  As  the  State  has  general  laws 
which  apply  well  enough  to  the  majority  of  cases, 
but  has  special  legislation  for  the  exceptional  cases 


PROVIDENCE.  301 

which  were  not  provided  for  by  the  general  statutes ; 
and  as  it  has  a  jury  whose  function  is  to  deter- 
mine if  the  law  shall  punish  this  or  the  other  man  who 
has  violated  it,  so  the  popular  theology  teaches  that 
God's  providence  has  its  general  legislation,  which 
applies  well  enough  to  the  majority  of  cases,  and 
its  special  legislation,  which  applies  only  to  the  ex- 
ceptional cases,  with  its  particular  mercy,  which  like 
the  jury  refuses  to  execute  the  law  when  it  seems 
too  hard.  For  it  is  tacitly  taken  for  granted  by  the 
popular  theology  that  God  did  not  foresee  and  pro- 
vide for  all  the  wants  of  the  Universe,  material  or 
spiritual,  but  is  sometimes  taken  by  surprise,  things 
not  turning  out  as  He  designed  or  expected,  and  so 
He  has  to  interfere  by  special  miracles,  to  mend  his 
work,  to  set  up  makeshifts  and  provisional  expedi^ 
ents.  Thus  it  is  represented  that  the  loneliness  of 
Adam  in  Paradise,  his  seduction  and  fall,  the  subse- 
quent wickedness  of  his  descendants,  the  transgres- 
sions of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  general  sinfulness  of 
mankind  at  a  later  day,  were  all  a  surprise  to  the 
Creator,  things  not  turning  out  according  to  his 
thought.  New  expedients  must  accordingly  be 
devised  to  meet  the  unexpected  emergency. 

In  like  manner  it  is  taught  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth- 
was  under  the  special  providence  of  God  ;  that  all 
history  prepared  for  him  and  pointed  to  him ;  that 
he  had  a  special  mission,  while  you  and  I  are  only 
under  the  general  providence,  history  has  not  pre- 
26 


302  PROVIDENCE. 

pared  for  us,  does  not  point  to  us,  and  we  have 
no  special  mission  ;  in  short,  that  Jesus  is  a  providen- 
tial man,  with  a  providential  function  and  history, 
while  you  and  I  are  not  providential  men  and  have 
no  providential  history  or  function. 

This  common  theological  notion  of  the  limited 
general  providence  and  limited  special  providence  of 
God  belongs  to  the  very  substance  of  the  popular 
theology,  and  springs  from  its  idea  of  God  as  finite 
in  power,  in  wisdom,  in  justice  and  in  love.  Some 
ancient  and  some  modern  philosophers,  seeing  the 
change  and  progress  in  manifestation,  believe  there 
is  a  corresponding  change  in  the  manifestor,  and  de- 
clare God  is  not  a  Being  but  a  Becoming.  The 
popular  theology  has  the  same  vice,  —  though  the  the- 
ologians are  not  conscious  thereof,  and  denounce  it, 
believing  that  God  grows  wiser  by  experiment,  and 
must  alter  his  plans.  Yet  in  contradiction  of  their 
own  staterrients,  they  declare  Him  without  variable- 
ness and  shadow  of  turning ;  while  according  to  the 
popular  theology  the  history  of  God  is  a  history  of 
revolutions,  even  in  his  dealing  with  his  chosen  peo- 
ple, the  revelation  through  the  Messiah  being  flat 
opposite  to  the  revelation  through  Moses  which  it 
annuls.  Pantheism  and  the  popular  theology,  hos- 
tile as  they  are,  agree  in  this  strange  conclusion  — 
the  negation  of  the  Infinite,  and  the  affirmation  of  a 
variable  God.  The  pantheist  consciously  denies  the 
one  and  affirms  the  other,  in  laying  down  his  premi- 


PROVIDENCE.  303 

ses ;  the  theologian  does  it  unconsciously,  in  devel- 
oping his  conclusion. 


From  the  Nature  of  God  as  Infinite,  from  the  re- 
lation He  sustains  to  the  creation,  as  perfect  and 
and  perpetual  Cause  thereof,  it  follows  that  his 
Providence  must  be  not  barely  special  —  eminently 
providing  for  certain  things,  —  or  general  —  taking 
care  of  the  great  mass  but  letting  exceptional  par- 
ticulars slip  through  his  fingers; — it  must  be  uni- 
versal. It  must  extend  to  each  thing  He  has  created, 
to  all  parts  of  its  existence  and  to  every  action 
thereof.  If  it  be  not  so,  then  either  some  parts  of 
creation  are  entirely  derelict  of  God,  destitute  of  his 
Providence,  without  his  care,  neglected  by  Him  and 
outlaws  from  God,  put  to  the  ban  of  the  Universe ; 
or  else  destitute  of  his  Providence  during  some  por- 
tions of  their  existence,  or  in  some  acts  of  their  lives. 
Either  case  is  at  variance  with  the  Infinite  nature 
and  function  of  God.  For  when  the  Infinite  God 
created  the  universe,  it  must  have  been  from  a  per- 
fect motive,  of  a  perfect  material,  for  a  perfect  pur- 
pose, and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto  ;  and  He  must 
therefore  have  understood  it  all  completely — in 
each  of  its  parts  —  and  perfectly  —  in  all  the  details 
of  each  part;  and,  knowing  all  the  powers.  He 
foreknows  all  the  actions,  necessitated  or  contin- 
gent, and  provides  for  each.     This  must  be  true  of 


304  PROVIDENCE. 

the  universe  as  a  whole ;  and  of  each  part  thereof. 
All  its  actions  must  be  thus  provided  for.  The  laws 
of  the  universe, — the  constant  modes  of  operation 
of  the  material  or  human  forces,  —  must  be  founded 
on  this  complete  and  perfect  knowledge,  and  coexten- 
sive therewith,  and  be  exponents  of  that  motive  and 
servants  of  that  purpose.  This  is  what  is  meant, 
when  it  is  said  the  laws  of  matter  and  of  mind,  be- 
long to  the  nature  and  constitution  of  matter  and  of 
mind.  These  laws  are  formed  after  a  complete  knowl- 
edge of  all  their  properties,  functions  and  conse- 
quences. Before  there  were  two  particles  of  matter 
in  existence,  the  Infinite  God  must  have  understood 
the  law  of  attraction,  in  its  larger  form  as  gravita- 
tion, its  smaller  as  cohesion,  and  have  known  that 
thereby  the  tower  of  Siloam  would  one  day  fall  and 
slay  eighteen  men  ;  that  many  a  beetling  crag  would 
tumble  to  the  ground,  and  Alpine  landslips  bring 
thousands  of  men  to  premature  destruction.  But  all 
those  laws,  thus  made,  must  coincide  with  the  mo- 
tive of  God  and  be  means  for  his  purpose ;  they 
must  suit  the  welfare  of  the  whole  creation  and  of 
each  part  thereof.  This  must  be  true  of  the  material 
world  which  is  unconscious  and  not  free ;  of  the  ani- 
mal world  which  is  not  free  yet  partially  conscious ; 
of  the  human  world  w^iich  is  conscious  and  par- 
tially free ;  and  of  all  superhuman  worlds  wdth  high- 
er degrees  of  consciousness  and  freedom. 

To  this  universal  extent  must  all  things  be  under 


prom:dence.  305 

the  Providence  of  God ;  to  this  extent  his  constant 
modes  of  operation  must  needs  reach  out. 

Then  if  you  look  at  the  relation  of  God  to  any 
one  thing,  say  the  grub  of  a  Buprestian  beetle  bor- 
ing into  the  bough  of  the  oak  I  just  now  spoke  of, 
it  seems  as  if  God  made  the  bough  of  the  tree  ex- 
pressly for  that  little  incipient  insect ;  and  the  oak 
for  the  bough ;  and  the  soil  for  the  oak :  the  globe, 
with  all  its  ups  and  downs,  which  Geology  relates, 
seems  made  for  the  soil;  and  the  universe  for  the 
globe.  So  it  appears  that  that  little  larva  of  a  bee- 
tle is  the  end,  or  final  cause,  of  the  universe,  stands 
on  the  top  of  the  world,  and  has  all  creation  to  wait 
on  him,  with  the  God  thereof  as  providential  over- 
seer. Then  regarding  this  grub  as  the  one  thing  the 
universe  was  designed  to  serve,  theologians  might 
say,  "  Behold  God's  providence  is  special ;  He  has 
special  legislation  to  suit  this  Buprestian  grub,  and 
has  aimed  the  whole  world  at  this  mark.  See  how 
all  things  prepare  for  that ;  the  sun  and  moon  are 
only  its  forerunners,  and  in  the  fulness  of  time  be- 
hold a  grub  I " 

But  when  the  theologian  studies  the  condition  of 
the  next  grub  in  an  oak-apple,  or  a  gall-nut,  or  in 
the  nearest  bough,  he  finds  them  all  as  well  condi- 
tioned, and  sees  that  God  takes  care  of  the  Ly- 
mexylon,  the  Hylecaetus,  and  the  Brenthus  as  well  as 
of  the  Buprestian ;  that  each  of  them  stands  just  as 
26* 


303  PROVIDENCE. 

much  on  the  top  of  the  world,  with  the  universe  to 
wait  thereon  and  God  as  overseer.  You  may  study 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  oak-tree — the  toad,  the 
squirrel,  the  fox,  the  bear,  it  is  true  of  them  all.  Yes, 
it  is  true  of  every  special  thing  in  the  world,  when 
you  fully  understand  that  special  thing  in  all  its  ex- 
istence, in  each  act  of  its  life.  We  cannot  by  experi- 
ment and  observation  prove  this  so  clearly  in  every 
case  as  in  some  special  cases,  but  starting  with  the 
idea  of  God  as  infinite,  the  conclusion  follows  at 
once,  — that  his  Providence  in  reference  to  each  par- 
ticular thing  is  a  perfect  Providence. 

Then  if  you  look  at  the  relation  of  God  to  the 
whole  universe,  you  see  that,  as  far  as  you  under- 
stand it,  the  whole  is  as  well  taken  care  of  and  pro- 
vided for  as  the  most  contented  grub  who  lives  on 
the  bounty  of  the  oak ;  and  you  say,  "  Here  is  gen- 
eral providence,  God  acting  by  general  laws  for  gen- 
eral purposes ;  things  work  well  on  the  whole,  and 
'if  now  a  bubble  bursts,  and  now  a  world,'  it  is 
only  a  small  exception.  The  attraction  of  gravita- 
tion is  a  good  thing,  it  keeps  the  world  together  ;  and 
if  the  tower  of  Siloam,  thereby  falling  to  the  ground, 
slays  eighteen  men  of  Jerusalem,  that  number  is  too 
small  to  think  of,  considering  the  myriad  millions 
who  are  upheld  by  this  same  law." 

A  law  that  is  perfectly  special,  providing  for  each, 


rROVIDENCE.  307 

is  also  completely  general,  providing  for  all.  In 
other  words,  it  is  universal.  God's  Providence  must 
be  infinite,  like  his  nature.  Special  and  general  are 
only  forms  in  which  we  conceive  of  that  providence  ; 
—  in  its  relation  to  a  single  thing  men  name  it  spe- 
cial, to  many  things,  general,  while  it  extends  to  all 
and  is  universal.  Accordingly  it  neither  requires  nor 
admits  of  miraculous  make-shifts  and  provisional 
expedients,  which  theologians  think  indispensable  to 
their  finite  God. 

When  God  created  mankind  He  must  have  given 
thereto  the  powers  which  are  requisite  to  accomplish 
all  his  purpose.  This  must  be  true  of  mankind  as 
a  whole,  and  of  Amos  and  Habakkuk,  of  each  man, 
as  a  part  thereof;  of  each  man  considered  individ- 
ually as  an  integer,  and  considered  socially,  or  hu- 
manly, as  a  fraction  of  the  community,  or  race,  and 
so  a  factor  in  the  social,  or  general  human  result  of 
the  life  of  mankind.  Of  course  God  must  foreknow 
what  use  or  abuse  would  be  made  of  these  powers, 
given  in  their  present  proportion,  just  as  well  as  He 
knows  it  now,  after  all  the  experience  of  centuries. 
Knowing  human  nature,  He  must  foreknow  human 
history.  For  example,  God  must  have  foreknown 
that  young  children  would  stumble  bodily  in  getting 
command  of  their  limbs,  in  learning  to  walk,  and 
suffer  pain  in  consequence  thereof ;  that  older  chil- 
dren would  stumble  spiritually  in  getting  command 


308  PPvOVIDEJs^CE. 

of  their  spirits,  in  learning  to  think  and  to  will,  and 
suffer  in  consequence  of  that ;  that  mankind  as  a 
whole  would  stumble  in  getting  command  of  the 
material  world,  and  the  development  of  their  human 
powers ;  and  accordingly  there  would  be  suffering 
from  that  cause. 

Now  God,  inasmuch  as  He  is  God,  acts  providen- 
tially in  Nature  not  by  miraculous  and  spasmodic 
fits  and  starts,  but  by  regular  and  universal  laws,  by 
constant  modes  of  operation  ;  and  so  takes  care  of 
material  things  without  violating  their  constitution, 
acting  always  according  to  the  nature  of  the  things 
which  He  has  made.  It  is  a  fact  of  observation  that 
in  the  material  and  unconscious  world  He  works  by 
its  materiality  and  unconsciousness,  not  against 
them  ;  in  the  animal  world  by  its  animality  and  par- 
tial consciousness,  not  against  them.  Judging  from 
the  nature  of  God  and  of  man,  it  must  be  concluded 
that  in  the  providential  government  of  the  world. 
He  acts  also  by  regular  and  universal  laws,  by  con- 
stant modes  of  operation ;  and  so  takes  care  of  hu- 
man things  without  violating  their  constitution,  act- 
ing always  according  to  the  human  nature  of  man, 
not  against  it,  working  in  the  human  world  by  means 
of  man's  consciousness  and  partial  freedom,  not 
against  them. 

Here  in  the  human  world  God's  providence  must 
be  as  complete  and  as  perfect  as  there  in  the  mate- 
rial or  animal  world,  in  each  department  acting  by 


PROVIDENCE.  309 

the  natural  laws  thereof,  not  without  or  against  them. 
As  by  the  very  constitution  of  material  or  animal 
things  God's  providence  acts  by  the  natural  laws 
thereof —  statical,  dynamical  and  vital  laws  —  so 
from  the  very  constitution  of  man  it  appears  that 
God's  perfect  Providence  must  work  according  to 
the  spiritual  laws  thereof;  for  it  is  not  conceivable 
either  that  God  should  devise  laws  not  adequate  for 
his  purpose,  or  capriciously  depart  from  them  if 
made  adequate.  Call  this  Providence  special  as  it 
applies  to  Hophni  and  Phineas,  or  general  as  it  ap- 
plies to  all  the  children  of  Jacob,  it  is  plain  that  it 
must  be  universal  applying  to  all  material,  animal  and 
human  things. 


If  these  things  are  so,  if  God  be  Infinite,  then  the 
Hebrew  nation  is  under  His  universal  Providence ; 
but  the  Amalekites  whom  the  Hebrews  overthrew, 
and  the  Romans  who  conquered  the  conquerors,  and 
the  Goths  who  vanquished  the  Romans,  are  all  and 
equally  under  the  universal  Providence  of  God,  who 
cares  equally  for  them  all.  Not  only  are  the  nations 
under  his  Providence  in  their  great  acts,  but  in  their 
little  every  day  transactions.  Theologians  love  to 
think  that  God  was  present  with  the  Hebrews  in 
their  march  out  of  Egypt,  at  Mount  Sinai ;  that  their 
exodus  and  legislation  were  providential.  It  is  all 
true  ;  but  the  same  Providence  watched  equally  over 


310 


PROYIDEXCE. 


the  English  Pilgrims  in  their  exodus ;  over  the  Bri- 
tish Parliament  making  laws  at  Westminster,  the 
American  Congress  at  Philadelphia  and  Washing- 
ton. It  is  well  to  see  this  fact  in  Hebrew  history ; 
well  also  to  go  farther  forward  and  see  it  in  all  hu- 
man history,  and  to  know  that  human  nature  is 
divine  Providence. 

The  common  theological  notion  of  a  special  Provi- 
dence, with  its  special  favorites,  is  full  of  mischief. 
Some  intensely  national  writer  in  the  Hebrev/  Old 
Testament  tells  us  that  Noah  cursed  the  descendants 
of  Ham  for  their  father's  folly ;  theologians  inform 
us  that  in  consequence  thereof  his  descendants  are 
cast-ofF,  outlaws  from  God.  But  there  are  no  out- 
laws from  the  Infinite  Father :  to  say  He  casts  off 
any  child  of  his,  Hebrew  or  Canaanite,  is  as  ab- 
surd as  to  say  He  alters  the  axioms  of  mathematics, 
or  the  truths  of  the  multiplication  table.  It  is 
inconsistent  with  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the 
Infinite  God ;  it  is  as  impossible  as  that  one  and 
one  should  be  two  thousand,  and  not  two.  The 
African  nations,  whom  the  Caucasians  enslave, 
must  be  as  dear  to  God  as  the  pale  tyrant  who  ex- 
ploiters them,  just  as  much  under  His  infinite  Prov- 
idence, which  will  not  suffer  any  ultimate  and  unre- 
compensed  evil  to  befall  the  black  or  white. 

All  individuals  then  must  be  equally  under  the 
same  providential  care    of   the   Infinite   God ;  not 


PROVIDENCE.  311 

merely  great  men,  the  Charlemagnes,  the  Cromwells, 
the  Napoleons,  "  men  of  destiny  "  -as  they  are  called, 
but  the  little  men ;  not  merely  the  good  men,  the 
heroes  of  religion,  the  Moseses  and  the  Jesuses,  but 
ordinary  men,  and  wicked  men,  not  barely  in  their 
great  moments,  when  they  feel  conscious  of  God,  but 
in  their  daily  work  and  humble  consciousness.  Then 
it  is  plain  that  not  only  Moses  and  Jesus  are  provi- 
dential men  intrusted  with  a  special  mission,  but 
you  and  I  and  each  man  are  just  as  much  providen- 
tial men,  equally  intrusted  with  a  mission,  not  the 
less  special  because  it  is  humble  and  our  powers  are 
weak.  The  unnatural  Spartan  father  rejects  and 
disdains  his  idiot  girl,  leaving  her  to  perish  on  Mount 
Cithseron ;  the  theologian  casts  off  his  son,  grown  up 
wicked  and  a  public  criminal,  leaving  him  to  perish 
unpitied  in  his  jail.  But  the  loving  kindness  of  the 
Infinite  Father  watches  over  the  fool,  the  tender 
mercy  of  the  Infinite  Mother  takes  up  the  criminal 
when  mortal  parents  let  him  fall.  There  is  no  child 
of  perdition  before  the  Infinite  God. 

Now  God,  as  the  infinitely  perfect,  must  accom- 
plish his  providential  function  by  the  laws  which  be- 
long to  the  nature  and  constitution  of  things ;  that 
is,  by  the  normal  and  constant  mode  of  operation  of 
the  natural  powers  resident  in  those  things  them- 
selves ;  in  material  and  animal  nature  by  the  forces 
and  laws  thereof;  in  human  nature  by  its  forces  and 
its  laws.     For  as  Providence  is  the  divine  execution 


312  PROVIDEXCE. 

in  time  of  the  eternal  divine  purpose,  it  is  absurd  to 
say  that  God  supersedes  or  annuls  the  means  which 
He  primarily  designed  for  that  purpose.  The  classic 
deist  supposed  the  material  world  was  the  work  of 
one  God;  and  the  arrangement  of  human  affairs 
the  work  of  another.  Between  the  two  there  was  a 
collision  and  a  quarrel,  the  world-governor  must 
interfere  with  the  work  of  the  world-maker.  Caus- 
ality and  Providence  were  antagonistic.  But  with 
the  idea  of  the  Infinite  God  this  antithetic  dualism 
vanishes  at  once  away. 

The  creative  causality  of  the  Infinite  God  is  like- 
wise conservative  and  administrative  Providence. 
So  from  the  nature  of  the  infinitely  perfect  God  and 
the  consequent  perfection  of  his  motive,  material, 
purpose  and  means  thereto,  it  follows  that  He  will 
not  destroy  as  infinite  Providence  what  He  created 
as  infinite  Cause  ;  that  He  will  not  violate  the  laws 
and  break  the  constitution  which  He  himself  has 
made.  Accordingly,  in  the  midst  of  God's  Provi- 
dence working  from  a  perfect  motive,  for  a  perfect 
purpose,  and  by  means  of  the  constitution  and  na- 
ture of  man,  a  Providence  extending  to  all  men  and 
to  their  every  act,  it  is  plain  that  human  freedom  is 
safe,  and  the  ultimate  welfare  of  each  man  is  made 
sure  of,  as  certain  as  the  existence  of  God,  or  of 
man. 

Atheism  tells  you  of  a  world  without  a  God,  a 
great  going,  but  a  going  with  none  to  direct,  the 


PROVIDENCE.  313 

popular  Theology  tells  that  this  going  is  directed  by 
a  finite  and  changeable  God,  jealous,  revengefal, 
loving  Jacob  and  hating  Esau,  working  by  fits  and 
starts,  even  in  wrath  destroying  what  He  made  im- 
perfect to  begin  anew,  and  designing  to  torment  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  in  everlasting  woe  —  "  mis- 
erable to  have  eternal  being."  But  with  the  absolute 
Religion,  a  knowledge  of  God  as  Infinite  how  dif- 
ferent do  all  things  appear !  We  have  confidence, 
absolute  trust  in  the  motive  and  purpose  of  God, 
absolute  trust  also  in  the  means  which  He  has  pro- 
vided in  the  nature  and  constitution  of  things.  The 
human  faculties  become  then  the  instruments  of 
Providence.  Every  man  is  under  the  protection  of 
God  —  and  all  fear  of  the  final  result  for  you,  or  me, 
or  for  mankind,  quite  vanishes  away.  The  details 
we  know  not.  Experience  reveals  them  a  day-full 
at  a  time  ;  the  result  we  are  sure  of. 

Timid  men,  who  think  that  God  is  miserly  and 
the  great  hunker  of  the  Universe,  sometimes  fear 
the  material  world  will  not  hold  out ;  some  little 
"perturbations"  are  discovered,  now  the  Earth  ap- 
proaches the  Sun  for  many  years,  perhaps  never 
twice  has  described  exactly  the  same  track,  they 
fear  the  earth  will  fall  into  the  fire  and  the  world  be 
burned  up.  But  by-and-by  we  find  that  these  "  per- 
turbations" only  disturbed  the  astronomer,  doubtful  of 
God  ;  that  to  the  Cause  and  Providence  of  the  world 
they  were  eternally  known,  fore-cared  for  ;  that  they 

27 


314  PEOVIDENCE. 

are  normal  acts  of  faithful  matter,  and  so  all  undis- 
turbed the  world  rolls  on.  Constant  is  balanced  by 
constant.  Variable  holds  variable  in  check.  In  her 
cyclic  rotation  round  the  earth  the  moon  nods ;  the 
earth  oscillates  in  her  rythmic  round,  while  the 
sun  nods  also,  as  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the 
solar  system  shifts  now  a  little  this  way,  then  a  lit- 
tle that ;  nay  the  whole  solar  system,  it  is  likely, 
swings  a  little  from  side  to  side  :  but  all  this  has  been 
foreseen,  provided  for,  balanced  by  forces  which  nev- 
er sleep,  and  one  thing  set  over  against  another 
in  such  a  sort  that  all  work  together  for  good,  and 
the  great  chariot  of  heaven  sweeps  on  through  starry 
space  keeping  its  God-appointed  track.  Such  is  the 
Providence  of  God  in  matter,  not  an  atom  of  star- 
dust  is  lost  out  of  the  sky,  not  an  atom  of  flower-dust 
is  lost  from  off  this  dirty  globe  ;  such  are  the  laws  by 
which  God  works  his  functions  out  in  Nature.  Igno- 
rance is  full  of  dread  and  starts  at  terrors  in  the 
dark,  trembles  at  the  earthquake  and  the  storm.  But 
Science  justifies  the  ways  of  God  to  matter,  know- 
ing all  and  loving  all,  discloses  every  where  the  im- 
manent and  ever  active  force.  Where  Science  does 
not  understand  the  mode  of  action,  nor  read  the 
title  of  perfection  clearly  in  the  work  —  it  points  to 
the  Infinite  Perfection  of  the  Author,  and  we  fear 
no  more. 


IX 


OF  THE    ECONOMY  OF   PAIN  AND  MISERY  UNDER 
THE  UNIVERSAL  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD. 


HE    IIATH   MADE    NOTHING    IMPERFECT.  — Ecclesiastlc.  xlii.  24. 

Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  Providence  in  its  most 
general  form,  as  the  universal  execution  of  the  per- 
fect purposes  of  God  by  the  perfect  means  He  had 
originally  devised.  Closely  connected  with  this  are 
two  things  which  demand  attention,  namely,  the 
phenomena  which  are  called  Evil  and  Sin,  and  the 
relation  thereof  to  the  causal  and  providential  func- 
tion of  the  Infinite  God. 

To  understand  this  matter  of  Evil,  to  know  its 
mode  of  origin  and  of  operation,  and  the  purpose 
it  serves,  considerable  nicety  of  thought  is  neces- 
sary ;  and  of  course  considerable  precision  in  the 
words  which  express  and  define  thought. 

The  word  Evil  is  ambiguous  in  its  meaning,  and 
has  both  a  wide  and  a  narrow  signification.     Some- 


316        •  PROVIDENCE. 

times  it  means  something  painful  for  which  there  is 
no  adequate  compensation  to  the  sufferer.  Some- 
times it  means  something  painful  for  which  there  is 
an  adequate  compensation  to  the  sufferer.  In  this 
Sermon  I  will  use  the  word  Evil  in  its  general  and 
ambiguous  sense,  while  the  two  special  forms  there- 
of,—  the  uncompensated  and  the  compensated, — 
I  will  call  Absolute  Evil  and  Partial  Evil. 
So  much  for  the  definition  of  these  terms. 

The  phenomena  called  Evil  may  for  convenience, 
be  distributed  into  two  general  forms,  or  modes : 

I.  Evil  which  does  not  come  from  a  conscious 
and  voluntary  transgression  of  a  natural  law  of  the 
Body  or  the  Spirit ;  that  is.  Pain  and  Misery.  This 
may  be  more  minutely  designated  and  distinguished 
by  reference  to  the  part  through  which  we  suffer  — 
as  physical  pain,  suffering  by  the  body;  spiritual 
pain,  suffering  by  what  is  not  body. 

II.  Evil  which  comes  from  a  conscious  and  vol- 
untary transgression  of  a  natural  law  of  the  body  or 
the  spirit ;  that  is  Sin,  meaning  thereby  the  trans- 
gression with  all  its  subjective  and  objective  conse- 
quences. 

So  much  also  for  the  definition  of  these  terms. 
To-day  I  shall  speak  only  of  Pain  and  Misery  ; 
and  of  them  chiefly  in  the  form  of  Physical  Evil. 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  .         317 

In  the  world  of  mere  Matter,  there  is  no  conscious- 
ness, no  freedom,  no  will.  It  is  subject  wholly  to  stat- 
ical and  dynamical  laws  in  their  various  forms ;  and 
there  is  therefore  no  Pleasure  ai.d  no  Pain.  That  de- 
partment of  creation  seems  designed  merely  for  a 
theatre  on  which  animated  beings  are  to  find  scope 
for  action,  and  whence  they  may  obtain  their  means 
of  livelihood.  I  think  no  man  pretends  to  find  any 
evil  there. 

But  there  is  the  world  of  Animals  and  of  Man, 
conscious  in  higher  or  lower  degrees,  and  with  more 
or  less  of  freedom,  gifted  with  partial  power  of  will. 
Here  is  the  field  for  Pleasure  and  Pain  —  the  ele- 
ments of  Happiness  and  of  Misery,  the  two  poles  of 
life.     Here  occur  the  phenomena  of  Evil. 

By  Pleasure  I  mean  the  state  which  comes  from 
the  fulfilment  of  the  natural  conditions  of  animate 
existence;  from  the  normal  satisfaction  of  natural 
desires.  By  Pain  I  mean  the  state  which  comes 
from  non-fulfilment  of  those  natural  conditions; 
from  the  absence  of  the  normal  satisfaction  of  those 
desires.  Of  course  I  include  in  that  state  not  only 
the  negative  form  of  evil  —  lack  of  the  desirable, 
but  the  positive  form  of  evil  —  presence  of  the  hate- 
ful. Happiness  is  prolonged  pleasure ;  Misery  is 
prolonged  pain. 

Happiness  is  great  in  proportion  to  the  greatness 
of  the  faculties  which  seek  their  natural  satisfaction  ; 
and  in   proportion  likewise  to  the  completeness  of 
27* 


318  PROVIDENCE. 

the  satisfaction  itself.  So  there  is  a  qualitative  dis- 
tinction, of  the  specific  modes  of  Happiness  —  as  it 
comes  from  satisfying  high  or  low  desires ;  and  a 
quantitative  distinction,  of  the  particular  degrees 
thereof — the  satisfaction  being  partial  or  total.  On 
the  other  hand  Misery  is  great  or  little  in  proportion 
to  the  faculties  and  their  satisfaction  ;  and  there  is  the 
same  qualitative  and  quantitative  distinction  —  of 
modes  and  degrees  thereof. 


Let  us  now  look  at  some  of  the  phenomena  of 
Physical  Evil.  And  for  clearness'  sake  let  us  attend 
first  to  the  simplest  forms  thereof,  and  thence  ascend 
up  to  the  more  complex  and  difficult. 

In  the  Animal  world  happiness  usually  prepon- 
derates over  misery.  The  two  most  powerful  groups 
of  instincts  in  the  animal  world  are  those  which  re- 
late to  the  preservation  of  the  individual  and  the 
perpetuation  of  the  race.  Those  instincts  are  com- 
monly satisfied.  Hence  comes  the  general  aspect  of 
happiness  throughout  this  department  of  the  uni- 
verse. Not  one  mosquito  in  a  million,  it  is  probable, 
ever  tastes  of  blood;  and  not  one  in  a  million  ever 
suffers  from  hunger.  You  never  saw"  a  melancholy 
fly,  or  a  wild  squirrel  that  was  unhappy ;  the  elephant, 
the  lion,  the  monkey  and  the  crocodile  seem  to  have 
a  good  time  in  the  world.     Happiness  is  obvious  in 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  319 

the  young  of  animals,  but  it  is  just  as  actual  in  the 
old,  only  it  assumes  a  graver  form,  and  so  is  not  so 
apparent  to  the  careless,  or  inexperienced  eye. 

"  Thy  creatures  leap  not,  but  express  a  feast, 
Where  all  the  guests  sit  close,  and  nothing  wants." 

Still  some  animals,  it  is  obvious,  suffer  pain  ;  all 
are  capable  of  it;  perhaps  all  the  higher  animals, 
some  time  in  their  lives,  are  made  to  suffer.  It  may 
be  asked,  "  Is  it  possible  that  there  shall  be  pain  in 
the  animal  world  which  the  Infinite  God  has  created 
from  perfect  motives,  of  perfect  material,  for  a  per- 
fect purpose  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto  ?  "  I 
answer,  Yes. 

I  do  not  pretend  that  I  can  clear  up  all  the  diffi- 
culties in  this  matter  by  the  inductive  mode  —  of 
studying  the  details,  and  thereby  learning  their  law 
and  showing  how  each  particular  form  of  evil  turns 
into  good  ;  —  I  shall  be  obliged  to  refer  to  the  idea 
of  God  as  Infinite,  and  from  that  deduce  the  value  of 
the  function  of  the  special  forms  of  pain  and  misery. 
This  will  often  happen.  The  wisest  man  is  only  a 
child  as  yet.  Philosophy  has  read  but  few  pages  of 
this  great  book  of  Nature,  w^hereof  all  must  be 
known  fully  to  understand  a  part.  When  I  know 
there  is  an  Infinite  God,  I  am  sure  that  his  purpose 
is  good  and  his  means  adequate  ;  I  spontaneously 
trust  therein.  This  instinctive  trust  outruns  the  re- 
flective demonstrations  of  science.     Still  it  is  both 


320  PROVIDEXCE. 

pleasant  and  satisfactory  to  learn  the  use  and  func- 
tion of  things  by  themselves,  by  an  inductive  study 
of  the  facts,  and  not  be  constrained  to  deduce  the 
conclusion  merely  from  the  idea  of  God.  In  some 
instances  this  is  not  difficult;  nay,  in  the  present 
condition  of  science,  it  is  not  hard  to  learn  the  gen- 
eral tendency  of  things  in  Nature,  and  thence  get  the 
analogy  of  the  whole  to  help  explain  particular 
parts.  But  no  man  I  think  as  yet  has  been  able  to 
explain  all  these  cases  by  the  purely  inductive  pro- 
cess. To  do  that  he  must  know  all  the  powers  and 
consequent  actions  and  history  of  each  thing  in  the 
universe. 

All  finite  things  must  needs  be  conditioned  ;  the 
Infinite  alone  is  absolutely  self-conditioned.  Thus 
the  bodies  of  animals  must  needs  depend  on  the 
world  about  them;  wherein  are  things  helpful  — 
meant  for  the  animals  they  serve,  —  and  things 
harmful  —  not  meant  for  the  animals  they  hurt. 
Continued  use  of  the  harmful  things  would  destroy 
the  individual  and  so  the  race. 

Accordingly  the  animal  frame  is  made  susceptible 
of  pain  from  the  Use  of  the  harmful  Substances,  and 
of  delight  from  the  use  of  the  helpful. 

Sometimes  this  pain  comes  before  the  consumma- 
tion of  the  use  :  thus  poisonous  plants  are  commonly 
odious  to  the  eye,  or  nauseous  to  the  smell,  or  hate- 
ful to  the  taste  of  the  creature  they  would  injure. 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  321 

Here  the  momentary  pain  —  the  transient  disgnst, — 
comes  as  a  forewarning:  as^ainst  a  foe.  Poisonous 
plants,  it  is  said,  have  somewhat  in  their  structure 
which  warns  off  the  animals  they  would  else  destroy 
—  some  special  ugliness  telegraphing  to  the  senses, 
the  unfitness  of  the  thing  for  use.  "  The  Devil," 
says  a  chemist,  "  is  always  chained."  If  not  he  is 
painted  black,  to  scare  away  the  creatures  he  would 
molest.  How  nicely  the  sheep  and  horses  avoid  all 
noxious  things.  Lobelia  would  kill  horses  ;  the  pun- 
gent plant  reads  the  riot-act  of  Nature  as  soon  as  it 
is  eaten  and  warns  the  offenders  of  their  transgres- 
sion. The  benevolent  motive  and  purpose  of  this 
form  of  pain  is  obvious  at  once. 

Then  there  are  Modes  of  Action  which  are  possi- 
ble to  an  animal,  but  which  would  be  fatal  if  persist- 
ed in  :  these  also  are  attended  by  pain.  A  young 
rabbit  heedlessly  running  through  briars  tears  his 
tender  skin  and  smarts ;  and  so  avoids  this  rending 
of  his  coat.  If  the  pain  did  not  warn  him,  he  would 
tear  his  skin  to  pieces  and  lose  his  life  in  seeking  to 
save  it.  A  dog  running  over  sharp  stones  would 
soon  wear  out  his  feet;  the  pain  warns  him  of  the 
peril  before  it  is  too  late.  If  he  were  to  lose  a  limb 
he  must  go  limp  and  lame  all  his  life,  for  another  leg 
will  not  shoot  out  to  take  the  place  of  the  one  he 
has  wasted  and  used  up.     The  suffering  makes  him 


822  PROVIDEXCE. 

carefal;  he  keeps  his  feet,  and  goes  four-legged  all 
his  days. 

The  lobster  and  the  crab  have  a  thick  and  nearly 
insensible  shell,  for  protection  against  ravenous  ene- 
mies ;  but  such  is  the  nature  of  their  covering  that 
their  limbs  are  brittle  and  easily  rent  off,  another 
soon  taking  the  place  of  that  which  is  lost.  The 
animal  suffers  but  little  pain  from  that  injury.  With 
him  it  is  no  great  hardship  to  lose  a  limb  which  is 
so  easily  supplied  anew.  But  the  lobster  cannot 
bear  any  gi'eat  change  of  temperature,  such  is  his 
constitution  ;  it  would  destroy  his  life.  So  his  shell 
is  a  good  conductor  of  heat,  and  he  is  keenly  sensi- 
tive to  the  alternations  of  heat  and  cold.  This  sen- 
sitiveness and  the  pain  it  brings  if  he  goes  out  of 
his  proper  temperature,  keep  him  always  in  such 
places  as  suit  his  organization,  in  a  temperature  con- 
genial to  his  nature,  in  waters  which  also  supply  his 
food.  The  dog  can  bear  a  great  change  of  temper- 
ture,  clad  in  his  non-conducting  coat,  which  also  ac- 
commodates itself  to  the  changes  of  climate.  Vari- 
ations of  temperature  are  not  painful  to  him.  The 
dog's  sensitiveness  of  touch,  and  the  lobster's  sensi- 
tiveness to  heat  and  cold  bring  pain  to  both ;  but 
the  suffering  keeps  the  lobster  in  his  place,  and  pre- 
serves the  limbs  of  the  dog  safe  and  sound.  Give 
the  dog  the  lobster's  insensibility  to  pain  from  the 
sense  of  touch,  he  would  run,  or   fight  till   he  wore 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIX.  323 

his  legs  off  of  his  body  ;  give  the  lobster  the  dog's 
sensitiveness  to  this  form  of  pain,  and  living  as  he 
does  in  the  ceaseless  wash  of  the  waters,  with  brittle 
limbs,  his  life  would  be  a  torment  while  it  lasted, 
and  in  torment  would  it  soon  end.  Give  the  dog 
the  lobster's  sensitiveness  to  heat  and  cold,  he  would 
be  miserable  most  of  the  time  and  soon  die  ;  give 
the  lobster  the  dog's  indifference  to  temperature,  the 
currents  of  the  sea  would  soon  sweep  him  away 
from  his  food,  from  his  natural  position,  and  he  and 
his  race  would  speedily  perish.  The  pain  of  both  is 
only  adequate  to  keep  each  in  his  proper  place ;  it  is 
the  tether  by  which  they  are  bound  out  and  kept 
from  harm. 

Such  is  the  general  use  of  this  form  of  pain  in  the 
animal  world  ;  it  is  a  natural  warning  against  ruin, 
a  sentinel  forever  mounting  guard  over  the  natives 
of  the  earth,  the  sea  and  air,  giving  early  admonition 
when  danger  draws  nigh. 

If  you  look  widely  and  carefully,  you  will  find 
there  is  always  the  most  nice  and  cunning  adapta- 
tion of  the  pain  to  the  end  it  is  to  answer.  Is  a 
condition  of  existence  neglected,  an  instinct  left 
without  its  satisfaction  ;  is  a  wrong  mode  of  action 
resorted  to,  or  improper  food  eaten,  uneasiness  and 
pain  warn  the  offender  of  his  mistake,  and  drive 
him  from  it.  This  pain  is  so  effectual  that  the  mas- 
ter-instincts of  an  animal  become  irresistible:  only 
external  violence  can  check  the  rush  of  Nature,  and 


324  PKOVIDEXCE. 

if  driven  out  she  soon  comes  back.  How  uneasy- 
are  the  birds  of  passage  at  the  time  of  their  annual 
migrations !  Their  pain  warns  them  against  the  ruin 
which  a  northern  winter,  or  a  southern  summer 
would  bring  upon  the  Swallow,  or  the  Stork. 

The  pain  which  comes  from  Fear  is  of  the  same 
remedial  character.  The  Hare  has  a  feeble  body ;  a 
rude  touch  drives  her  life  out  of  the  thin  walls  of  its 
habitation.  She  is  the  natural  prey  of  the  hawk, 
the  fox  and  the  wild-cat;  even  the  mink  and  the 
weasel  easily  master  her.  See  how  she  is  furnished 
with  quick,  capacious  and  variable  ears,  with  prom- 
inent and  ready  eyes ;  nimble  to  start  and  swift  to 
run.  She  is  cautious,  timid  and  fearful  to  a  remark- 
able degree;  she  runs  from  any  danger,  facing  noth- 
ing that  is  formidable.  She  has  no  power  to  resist 
any  of  her  natural  enemies.  Fear  is  her  sentinel. 
When  her  last  hour  comes,  she  dies  almost  at  a 
touch  from  her  enemy,  apparently  with  little  pain. 
Her  chief  suffering  is  from  fear,  and  that  is  only  ade- 
quate to  make  her  life  fast  to  her. 

So  far  as  I  have  seen,  or  read,  this  is  true  in  all 
departments  of  animal  life  —  the  ordinary  mode  of 
death,  though  often  a  violent  one,  is  attended  with 
very  little  pain ;  and  the  suffering  from  fear  is  only 
sufficient  to  keep  the  creatures  on  their  guard.  The 
bull  is  strong  and  tough,  able  to  endure  a  severe 
contest  with  a  powerful  enemy.     He  is  constitution- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  325 

ally  courageous,  and  marches  forth  to  meet  the  dan- 
ger which  threatens  him.  The  timidity  of  the  hare 
would  be  ridiculous  in  the  bull,  and  his  fearlessness 
fatal  to  her. 

Then  there  is  the  pain  which  animals  suffer  at 
the  loss  of  their  mates,  or  their  young.  You  see 
examples  of  this  in  all  animals  that  match  in  pairs, 
and  that  guard  and  protect  their  little  ones.  The 
monogamous  robin  mourns  at  the  loss  of  his  mate, 
or  at  the  plunder  of  his  nest.  The  ferocious  white 
bear,  it  is  said,  moans  like  a  human  mother  at  the 
loss  of  her  cubs.  The  suffering  of  sheep  and  cows 
when  their  children  are  torn  from  them,  is  too  well 
known  and  very  sad.  But  this  pain,  with  the  attend- 
ant fear  of  the  loss,  is  only  sufficient  to  lead  the 
mates  to  protect'  each  other,  the  parents  to  watch 
over  and  defend  their  child.  This  fear  often  creates 
a  certain  heroism  in  animal  bosoms,  the  bosoms  of 
animals  which  are  otherwise  cowardly.  The  hen  is 
commonly  a  garrulous  and  restless  busy-body,  bust- 
ling about  all  day,  a  weak  and  timid  animal,  fleeing 
from  every  trifling  danger.  When  the  maternal  in- 
stinct moves  her  to  brood  over  the  eggs  which  contain 
her  unseen  progeny,  how  all  is  changed  I  The  restless 
busy-body  sits  silent  and  patient  as  a  stone,  all  day 
incumbent  on  her  nest ;  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
heat  is  developed  in  her  body.  Her  timidity  vanishes  ; 
she  becomes  courageous,  and  rushes  out  to  defend  her 
28 


326  PROVIDENCE. 

nest,  and  still  more  to  protect  her  new-born  brood. 
She  defies  danger,  and  will  sooner  sacrifice  her  life 
than  desert  her  little  flock.  If  the  brood  is  lost,  her 
torment  is  exceeding  great.  After  her  fledglings  are 
grown  up  they  become  strangers  to  her ;  her  anxiety 
and  her  com*age  vanish  out  of  sight,  or  sleep  as  a  re- 
served power,  till  another  occasion  calls  them  forth. 
Here  pain  is  the  ally  of  affection,  the  family  girdle  to 
keep  her  little  household  together.  In  animals 
which  require  no  parental  care,  there  is  no  fear  of 
this  sort,  no  affection  for  it  to  guard.  The  salmon 
and  the  herring  drop  their  embryo  in  the  appropriate 
spot,  leaving  it  to  the  care  of  Nature.  After  the 
young  calf  has  outgrown  the  need  of  its  mother's 
care,  to  her  it  is  but  one  of  the  common  herd,  the 
feeling  of  kindred  is  extinct. 

In  all  these  cases  the  conservative  function  of 
these  four  forms  of  pain  is  evident  at  once,  as  soon 
as  the  facts  are  made  known.  And  the  balance  be- 
tween the  pain  and  the  purpose  it  is  to  serve  is  so 
exactly  sustained,  that  it  is  a  delight  to  the  thinking 
man  to  see  the  ways  of  Providence  with  these  little 
children  of  the  common  Father. 


'  Each  creature  hath  a  -wisdom  for  his  good  r 
The  pigeons  feed  their  tender  offspring,  crying, 

When  they  are  callow  ;  but  withdraw  their  food 
When  they  are  iSedge,  that  need  may  teach  them  flying." 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIN.  327 

Still  there  are  sufferings  in  the  animal  world  for 
which  I  can  see  no  present  recompense.  Some 
lose  a  limb  in  youth  and  suffer  all  their  life  ;  others 
are  scantily  fed.  Those  in  the  hands  of  man  are 
often  maimed,  ill-treated,  and  hindered  from  develop- 
ing their  nature  as  animals,  and  so  made  to  suffer. 
Man  "  improves "  the  breeds  of  cattle.  He  does 
not  always  improve  them  as  horses,  cows,  or  swine, 
but  only  as  animated  tools  for  his  service.  Some- 
times he  only  exploiters  them,  flis  "  racers  "  and 
"  draft-horses,"  his  "  Ayrshires,"  "  North-Devons," 
"  Merinoes  "  and  "  Saxonies,"  are  as  much  works  of 
human  invention  as  the  spinning-jenny  and  the 
printing  press.  Very  useful  contrivances  for  man's 
purpose,  they  are  less  horses,  oxen  and  sheep,  it 
seems  to  me,  than  were  their  savage  progenitors 
thousands  of  years  ago.  They  have  suffered  a 
change.  They  cannot  defend  themselves  if  turned 
out  in  the  forests,  nor  find  their  food  in  the  wilds 
where  the  Aurochs  rejoices  to  live.  But  I  doubt 
that  this  change  is  attended  with  any  necessary  un- 
happiness.  The  domestic  dog  seems  to  me  quite  as 
happy  an  animal  as  the  wild  dog.  If  we  take 
into  the  account  all  the  animals  connected  with  man, 
with  or  without  his  consent,  they  have  far  more  hap- 
piness than  misery.  The  horse  and  the  cow  seem 
in  part  designed  for  the  use  and  service  of  man,  and 
may  perform  that  service  with  no  unnatural  harm 
to    themselves.     Their   nature   is   exceeding   pliant 


328  PROVIDENCE. 

under  the  plastic  hand  of  man  ;  the  artificial  forms 
of  the  cow-kind  seem  to  me  as  happy  as  the  wild 
forms. 

But  still  there  is  pain  and  misery  in  the  animal 
world.  Now  howsoever  Paul  may  interpret  the  He- 
brew Bible,  it  is  plain  the  Infinite  God  "  doth  take 
care  for  oxen."  The  injuries  of  a  whale  that  in  his 
childhood  gets  his  jaw  broken,  and  goes  all  his  life 
with  a  twisted  mouth,  a  deformed  and  most  unlucky 
whale ;  the  misfortunes  of  a  horse  owned  by  some 
master  more  beastly  than  the  brute,  must  have  all 
been  known  by  God  at  the  creation,  provided  for  and 
compensated  in  some  way.  The  use  of  animal  pain 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  it  is  easy  to  discern,  and  to 
see  that  it  has  a  benevolent  function  to  accomplish. 
The  general  analogy  of  Nature  leads  to  the  infer- 
ence —  it  is  no  more,  —  that  it  must  likewise  be  so 
in  these  exceptional  cases.  But  from  the  idea  of 
the  Infinite  God  we  know  it  must  be  so;  that  this 
exceptional  pain  must  not  be  absolute  evil  to  the  in- 
dividual sufferer,  but  disciplinary  —  leading  to  some 
good  else  not  attainable  ;  and  so  compensated  by  the 
ultimate  welfare  which  it  helps  attain.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  know  how  this  is  brought  about ;  I  know 
not  the  middle  terms  which  intermediate  between 
the  misery  I  see  and  the  blessedness  I  imagine.  I 
only  know  that  the  ultimate  welfare  must  come  to 
the  mutilated  beast  overtasked  by  some  brutal  man. 
If  it  be  not  so  then  the  universe  is  not  a  perfect 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  329 

world ;  it  is  imperfect  in  this  particular,  that  it  does 
not  serve  the  natural  purpose  of  these  creatures, 
who  go  incomplete  and  suffering.  If  God  be  infi- 
nite then  He  must  make  and  administer  the  world 
from  perfect  motives,  for  a  perfect  purpose,  and  as  a 
perfect  means,  —  all  tending  to  the  ultimate  and  ab- 
solute blessedness  of  each  thing  He  directly  or  me- 
diately creates  ;  the  world  must  be  administered  so 
as  to  achieve  that  purpose  for  each  thing.  Else  God 
has  made  some  things  from  a  motive  and  for  a  pur- 
pose not  benevolent,  or  as  a  means  not  adequate  to 
the  benevolent  purpose.  These  suppositions  are  at 
variance  with  the  nature  of  the  Infinite  God. 

I  do  not  see  how  this  benevolent  purpose  can  be 
accomplished  unless  all  animals  are  immortal  and 
find  retribution  in  another  life.  I  know  many  will 
think  it  foolish,  and  some  impious,  to  speak  of  the 
immortality  of  animals.  But  without  this  supposi- 
tion I  cannot  "  vindicate  the  ways  of  God  "  to  the 
horse  and  the  ox.  To  me  the  immortality  of  all 
animals  appears  in  harmony  with  the  analogy  of 
Nature,  rational,  benevolent  •  and  beautiful.  Many 
of  the  arguments  for  human  immortality  apply  as 
well  to  the  case  of  the  bee  and  the  elephant  as  to 
John  and  Paul.  The  argument  from  consciousness  is 
here  out  of  place  —  as  man  knows  nothing  of  the 
consciousness  of  the  sheep  and  swine.  There  are 
but  two  arguments  which  I  have  ever  heard  brought 
against  the  immortality  of  animals  —  one  is  drawn 
28* 


330  PROVIDENCE. 

from  the  selfishness  of  man,  who  wants  a  monop- 
oly of  all  desh'able  things,  and  so  would  shut  beast 
and  bird  out  of  heaven ;  the  other  comes  from  the 
common  notion  of  the  Deity,  that  He  is  a  mean  and 
stingy  God,  making  heaven  little  and  hell  large. 
Let  both  pass  for  what  they  are  worth.  If  the  Span- 
ish inquisitor  and  the  American  kidnapper  can  be 
thought  immortal  and  capable  of  eternal  happiness, 
I  see  not  how  we  can  deny  eternal  life  to  any  Abys- 
sinian hyaena,  or  to  a  rattle-snake  from  Kentucky, 
far  less  ugly  and  venomous.  It  seems  to  me  that 
philosophical  theology  confirms  the  instinctive  na- 
ture of  the  "  poor  Indian," 

"  Wlio  thinks,  admitted  to  that  equal  sky, 
His  faithful  dog  shall  bear  him  company." 

If  this  be  so,  then  pain  and  misery  in  the  animal 
world  is  not  an  Absolute  Evil ;  in  the  majority  of 
cases  it  is  a  beneficent  sentinel  to  warn  creation  of 
the  approach  of  ruin,  and  in  the  exceptional  cases  is 
a  servant  that  by  some  unknown  way  conducts  to 
bliss, 

"Making  a  chiming  of  a  passing-bell." 


In  the  World  of  Man  the  afiair  is  much  more 
complicated ;  but  if  the  animal  world  be  rightly  un- 
derstood, this  other  is  not  difficult  to  comprehend. 


TUE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  331 

The  amount  of  individual  freedom  is  so  much  great- 
er with  man  than  with  animals,  that  we  commonly 
say,  man  is  free  —  self-ruled,  —  while  beasts  are 
bound,  ruled  wholly  by  some  objective  force,  tools 
and  not  agents.  Man's  tether  is  indeed  much  longer 
than  theirs;  and  his  margin  of  possible  oscillation 
is  much  greater.  For  man  having  powers  so  much 
more  various,  and  consequently  an  immediate  des- 
tination so  much  nobler,  stands,  in  general,  in  more 
complicated  relations  with  Nature  and  the  individual 
with  his  species,  and  is  subject  to  a  greater  variety 
of  conditions.  Accordingly  there  is  with  him  so 
much  the  more  room  for  generic  and  individual  ca- 
price, for  violating  the  conditions  of  welfare  and  of 
material  existence  ;  so  much  more  room  for  pain  and 
misery.  This  is  so  with  mankind,  and  with  each 
man,  at  every  particular  stage  of  his  conscious  ex- 
istence. 

But  in  addition  to  this  statical  complication  of 
his  nature,  man  has  other  dynamical  complications 
which  take  place  in  his  historical  development. 
Man  is  progressive ;  each  man  advancing  not  only 
from  babyhood  to  manhood,  —  for  that  is  so  with 
the  lion  and  the  lobster,  —  but  also  from  manhood 
till  death.  Not  only  is  each  man  thus  progressive 
as  an  individual,  but  each  nation  as  a  people,  and 
mankind  as  a  race.  Amid  the  fluctuations  of  indi- 
viduals the  nation  rolls  on  from  its  babyhood  to  its 
manhood;  and  amid  the  fluctuations  of  states  and 


332  PROVIDENCE. 

families,  of  nations,  the  mighty  Stream  of  Human- 
ity sweeps  on  to  its  destination,  bearing  in  its  eternal 
bosom  every  human  excellence  which  any  individual, 
or  any  people,  has  developed  and  brought  to  light. 

At  every  step  the  individual,  the  nation  and  the 
race  are  subject  to  the  natural  conditions  of  per- 
sonal, social  and  general  human  welfare ;  conditions 
which  are  rigorous  and  unavoidable.  All  this  de- 
velopment of  the  individual  and  the  race  is  progress 
by  experiment ;  for  while  the  crystal  is  formed,  and 
the  tree  grows,  by  processes  which  have  their  origin 
solely  in  the  Infinite  Cause ;  \vhile  each  individual 
lion  and  the  whole  lion-kind  grow  up  with  little  con- 
scious thought,  or  personal  will,  the  individual  man, 
and  the  man-kind  do  to  a  considerable  extent  shape 
their  forms  of  being.  This  progression  by  experi- 
ment involves  both  experiments  that  fail  and  ex- 
periments that  succeed.  The  failure  brings  pain;  if 
long  continued,  misery.  This  is  so  with  the  merely 
speculative  experiment,  with  thought :  the  faulty 
demonstration,  "  the  sum  which  will  not  come  out 
right,"  pains  the  boy  at  school ;  the  halting  tragedy 
racks  the  feeble-minded  poet ;  nay  the  imperfections 
in  the  works  of  Homer  and  ^schylus,  of  Dante  and 
Shakspeare,  tortured  those  mighty  bards.  Still  more 
is  this  the  case  with  practical  experiments,  with  deeds. 
The  little  girl,  learning  the  limits  between  the  Me 
and  Not-me,  mistakes  and  burns  her  fingers  in  the 
candle's  flame ;  the  great  nation  learning  the  limits 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  333 

between  the  Just  and  the  Unjust,  or  the  Expedient 
and  Unprofitable,  mistakes  and  loses  millions  of 
men.  Necessity  confines  the  beasts  within  a  narrow 
road  where  instinct  impels  them  on ;  they  cannot 
wander  much.  Freedom  opens  for  us  a  long  and 
wide  field,  with  opportunity  for  pain  and  misery. 
The  child  makes  unsuccessful  experiments  in  becom- 
ing a  man ;  the  man  in  reaching  after  more  man- 
hood ;  mankind,  in  all  our  history,  makes  experi- 
ments that  fail ;  all  painful.  Such  are  the  conditions 
of  our  human  lot,  conditions  which  to  the  nature  of 
a  finite,  progressive  and  free  being  seem  as  much 
indispensable  as  gravitation  to  atoms  of  matter  rep- 
resenting a  primary  law. 

The  actual  amount  of  pain  and  misery  is  far 
greater  in  the  human  world  than  in  the  animal 
world.  It  seems  to  me  greater  in  proportion  to  their 
respective  quantity  of  being.  The  Caucasian  child 
is  a  grief  to  his  mother  before  she  rejoices  that  a 
babe  is  born  ;  he  is  a  torment  to  himself  before  he 
has  his  first  teeth ;  a  trouble  to  his  father  in  growing 
up.  Man  has  all  the  animal  sources  of  pain,  and 
many  more  peculiar  to  himself,  springing  from  his 
more  mountainous  quantity  of  being  and  the  greater 
complication  thereof.  The  grown  animal  is  not  ca- 
pable of  progressive  development;  has  no  experi- 
ments to  make,  no  failures  to  mourn  over,  nor  suffer 
from.  The  race  of  animals  makes  no  failures,  no 
progress,  no  experiment.     No  lion  in  Africa  weeps 


334  PROVIDENCE. 

for  his  prodigal  son.  The  tigress  is  not  crossed  in 
love.  No  patrician  game-laws  hinder  the  fox  from 
"free  warren"  everywhere.  The  hippopotamus 
has  no  feudal  superior ;  the  wild-cat  has  eminent  do- 
main in  the  woods,  "free  fishing  and  fowling." 
There  is  no  despotic  Nicholas  or  Ferdinand  to  tor- 
ture the  race  of  wild  swine,  with  unreasonable  insti- 
tutes hedging  in  the  liberty  of  Nature.  No  revo- 
lutionists, no  red-republicans  jostle  the  rulers  of 
the  woods  and  seas ;  no  progressive  Kossuths  and 
Mazzinis  overturn  the  oligarchy  of  white  or  black 
elephants,  and  form  a  democracy  among  the  cat- 
tle. There  is  no  pain  from  bad  institutions,  —  no 
failure  to  have  good  ones.  No  timid  monkey  is  ever 
alarmed  at  the  "  Spread  of  Infidelity."  The  ravens 
that  wander  crying  for  lack  of  meat  and  finding  it  as 
they  fly,  have  no  fear  of  eternal  damnation,  no 
"  Adam's  fall  "  to  make  their  faces  gather  blackness ; 
the  "  federal  head "  of  the  crows  never  "  fell." 
There  is  no  popular  theology,  no  atheism,  with  the 
pigeons  and  black-birds. 

The  aspect  of  the  world  of  animals  is  one  of 
happiness.  What  a  contrast  between  that  and  the 
condition  of  man !  The  bob-o-link  in  the  grass  un- 
der my  window  seeking  food  for  her  little  nest-full  of 
promises,  is  happy  as  a  bird  can  be ;  her  joy  runs 
over  in  delightful  song.  Her  beauty  of  sound  meets 
the  morning  beauty  of  light,  and  what  a  psalm  they 
sing  —  the  sunrise  and  the  bird  —  to   eye  and  ear! 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   VAIN.  335 

Compare  her  with  the  mothers  in  the  houses  all 
about  me — in  the  great  cities  of  the  world,  the 
mothers  who  groan  in  labor  —  of  beggary,  of  prostitu- 
tion, of  drunkenness,  of  many-liveried  sin !  Not  one 
mosquito  in  a  million  suffers  from  hunger;  of  the 
thousand  million  men  how  many  will  die  outright 
of  starvation ;  how  many  go  stooping  and  feeble  for 
want,  and  at  last  be  thereby  shuffled  oif  the  stage  of 
life  I  How  contentedly  this  caterpillar  makes  ready 
for  her  transfiguration,  one  day  to  come  out  fair  as  the 
light  with  more  than  mythical  resplendence.  Plow 
sadly  the  seamstresses  of  Boston,  New  York  and 
London,  prepare  their  garment  of  transfiguration  — 
the  shroud  which  painful  fingers  are  so  long  in  mak- 
ing ready  for  death,  who  is  always  in  sight,  yet  so 
slow  in  coming  !  What  an  odds  between  the  Song 
of  a  Cocoon  and  "  the  Song  of  a  Shirt ! "  This 
grasshopper, 

"  Green  little  loiterer  in  the  sunny  grass, 
Catching  his  heart  up  at  the  feel  of  June," 

is  never  to  seek  for  his  daily  bread.  Yonder  cov/ 
takes  no  thought  for  raiment;  the  beaver  is  not 
afraid  of  being  warned  out  of  his  lodgings  and 
turned  upon  the  world,  his  wife  and  children  brought 
to  the  side-walk ;  the  pains  of  parturition  and  den- 
tition, with  that  troop  of  diseases  which  crowd 
about  the  cradle  of  human  infancy,  are  all  unknown 


336  PROVIDENCE. 

to  the  wild  camel,  the  bear  and  the  elephant.  The 
buffalo  is  never  concerned  for  the  raiment  of  his 
sons  and  daughters,  clad  and  shod  in  Nature's  best. 
No  wild-cat  has  any  difficulty  in  training  up  her  sons  ; 
the  horse-leech  has  no  concern  for  the  marriage  of 
his  two  proverbial  daughters.  Every  oyster  is  con- 
tented with  his  own  "  bank."  There  are  no  changes 
of  tariff  to  perplex  the  free-traders  of  sea,  and  land, 
and  sky.  No  protective  system  is  repealed  to  the 
damage  of  the  insect-manufacturers  —  of  the  bee,  or 
the  spider,  or  the  silk-worm.  The  Providence  of 
God  is  the  great  protective  system  for  all  these  chil- 
dren of  the  world.  The  universal  laws  —  they  never 
change.  The  aristocracy  of  the  ant-hill  does  not 
exploiter  the  common  people  ;  not  a  queen  bee  feared 
a  crisis  in  "  the  year  of  revolutions."  Compare  a 
hive  of  bees  — in  woods  or  garden,  —  or  a  family  of 
beavers,  with  Boston  or  Low^ell,  with  Paris  or  Lyons  ; 
and  what  an  odds  betwixt  the  welfare  of  the  two  ! 
Consider  the  poverty,  the  want,  the  ignorance,  the 
disease,  the  drunkenness,  and  vice,  and  crime,  and 
shortened  life,  which  make  up  the  misery  of  the 
poor  ;  consider  the  anxiety  and  servility,  the  disap- 
pointed ambition  and  defeated  affections,  which  so 
mar  the  welfare  of  the  thriving  and  the  rich ;  and 
what  a  difference  there  is  between  this  human 
misery  and  the  contentment  of  the  beast;  —  a 
difference  which,  at  first  sight,  seems  out  of  propor- 
tion to  the  different  degrees  of  power  and  of  freedom 


TUE    ECONOMY    OF    PAIN.  337 

—  misery  increasing  as  the  square  of  the  amount  of 
freedom!  The  whole  world  of  Nature  does  not 
furnish  a  St.  Giles  parish  of  the  beasts  ;  not  a  hu- 
man city  is  without  one ! 

Still  omitting  nothing  and  extenuating  nothing,  it 
seems  to  me  the  proportion  of  misery  in  the  world 
is  overrated  by  benevolent  men.  Happiness,  con- 
tentment of  the  actual  wants,  surpasses  unhappi- 
ness,  that  discontented  hunger  after  what  cannot  be 
reached.  It  is  so  in  convents  and  asylums,  with  the 
poor  in  large  towns  like  London  and  New  York, — 
such  is  the  human  power  of  accommodation  to  cir- 
cumstances. Plastic  man  is  pliant  also.  Take  any 
settlement  of  men,  Esquimaux,  Pawnees,  Tm'ks,  Chi- 
nese, Gaboons,  Bashmans,  Britons,  happiness  far 
surpasses  misery.  Go  into  the  lowest  parts  of  Bos- 
ton, or  London,  to  the  abodes  of  want  and  crime,  it 
is  so  there.  True  it  is  a  low  form  of  happiness,  and 
you  mourn  at  so  much  contentment  with  so  little 
welfare. 

Yet  there  is  pain  and  misery  of  the  saddest  sort. 
It  comes  from  non-fulfilment  of  the  conditions  of 
animal  life  —  from  want  of  food,  of  fire,  air  and 
water,  of  shelter  and  raiment;  from  sickness,  fear, 
grief;  from  the  lack,  or  the  loss,  of  objects  of  passion 
and  affection;  from  defeated  ambition,  defeated 
love ;  from  want  of  culture  —  of  one  or  all  the 
faculties. 

All  this  must  have  been  foreseen ;  it  is  a  part  of 
29 


338  PROVIDENCE. 

the  scheme  of  things  —  the  calculated  consequence 
of  man's  ignorance,  or  want  of  self-adaptation  to 
the  world  of  matter.  It  can  be  no  astonishment  to 
God.  Yet  at  first  sight  it  seems  as  if  there  was  an 
imperfection  in  God's  work.  This  misery,  which 
haunts  mankind,  seems  a  disgrace  to  the  world  and 
a  standing  impeachment  of  the  Providence  of  God. 
"  Call  this  a  perfect  world,"  says  some  kind-hearted 
man,  "  a  perfect  means  for  a  perfect  purpose  ?  Un- 
der the  Providence  of  the  Infinite  God  is  it  I  —  Then 
whence  this  vermin  pain  which  bores  into  every  house 
and  every  heart  ?  The  world  is  full  of  Evil,  absolute 
Evil ;  this  toad,  ugly  and  venomous,  squats,  full  of 
poison,  in  every  garden  which  man  plants.  Could 
not  God  make  a  world  without  misery  ?  " 

Well,  the  finite  must  needs  be  conditioned  — 
its  existence  one  of  limitation.  The  question  is 
whether  the  p?'esent  condition  contains  any  absolute, 
or  any  needless  partial  evil.  As  it  was  shown  before, 
pain  is  incidental  to  the  development  of  a  finite 
being  with  even  a  small  amount  of  freedom.  But 
as  man  is  more  free,  and  individually  and  generically 
progressive,  a  larger  amount  of  pain  is  incidental  to 
his  existence.  But  look  at  some  conjectural  schemes 
of  human  life. 

Suppose  man  had  been  made  with  no  capability 
of  progress  either  of  the  individual,  from  man- 
hood to  old  age,  or  of  the  race,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end;  and  put  in  the  rudest  condition  of  the 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  339 

lowest  tribe  of  men  —  of  the  Bnshmans,  or  the  Pata- 
gonians ;  but  had  all  his  wants  as  completely  and  as 
easily  met  as  the  oysters  in  the  waters  of  Virginia, 
so  that  the  whole  world  was  a  perpetual  Point  Com- 
fort to  each  man ;  that  there  was  no  pain,  no  possi- 
bility of  suffering ;  so  that  he  had  no  desire  which 
could  lead  him  astray  at  all,  no  freedom  to  go  astray, 
but  by  his  organization  was  bound  fast  to  the  actual, 

—  would  that  be  a  better  state  of  things  ?  Nobody 
thinks  so. 

Suppose  this  unprogressive  and  painless  creature 
elevated  to  the  highest  degree  of  our  present  civ- 
ilization—  to  the  intellectual  condition  of  the  phi- 
losophers who  make  up  the  Academies  of  Paris,  of 
Berlin,  and  of  London  ;  surrounded  with  all  the 
circumstances  which  suit  that  stage  of  development ; 
as  fully  satisfied  as  the  oyster,  and  as  incapable  of 
any  progress  —  individual  or  generic;  —  incapable  of 
pain;  without  freedom  of  further  development ;  by 
his  organization  bound  fast  to  the  actual,  no  ideal 
beauty — intellectual,  moral,  affectional,  or  religious, 

—  hovering  about  his  head;  and  that  undisturbed 
satisfaction  filled  up  the  consciousness  of  man. 
"Would  that  be  a  better  state  of  things  than  the 
present  condition  of  Germany,  France  and  England 

—  better  as  a  finality  than  the  present  as  a  stage  of 
progi'ess*  in  the  ever  unfolding  growth  of  man  ? 
No  thinker  will  think  so.     For  those  philosophers 


340  PROVIDENCE. 

are  as  far  from  a  full  enjoyment  of  all  the  powers  of 
their  human  nature  almost  as  the  Bushmans. 

We  are  made  with  a  nature  which  demands  con- 
tinual progress ;  the  instinct  of  development  is 
amazingly  powerful  in  the  race.  Mankind  is  not 
content  to  stand  still,  stopping  at  the  Bushman's 
elevation,  or  at  the  stage  where  the  modern  philoso- 
pher gathers  into  his  comprehensive  mind  the  riches 
of  present  human  consciousness.  The  Ideal  haunts 
the  human  race  and  through  eminent  tongues  calls 
out  to  man  continually,  "  Onward,  onward."  All 
advance  is  progression  by  experiment;  many  an 
attempt  fails  of  its  end  —  the  human  child  is  borne 
with  pain.  But  who  is  there  that  does  not  see  that 
man  has  a  higher,  nobler  destiny  than  the  creatures 
which  have  no  freedom,  —  bound  to  the  present? 

Suppose  man  made  capable  of  progress,  and  —  as 
finite  —  of  experiments  that  fail  and  yet  incapable  of 
pain.  Would  that  be  a  good  exchange  ?  Look  at 
some  examples.  A  man  will  not  eat  when  he  is  hun- 
gry :  suppose  God  by  a  transient  miracle,  or  a  per- 
manent law  forbid  the  pain  which  now  comes  from 
lack  of  food ;  the  man  would  die  of  inanition,  die 
without  warning.  Suppose  he  would  eat  when  not 
hungry,  or  in  excessive  quantity,  and  no  pain  fol- 
lowed this  violation  of  the  natural  rule  of  temperance ; 
he  would  die  of  repletion,  die  unwarned  of  his  peril. 
Suppose  he  would  eat  what  was  harmful,  things  not 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  341 

meant  for  human  food :  would  it  be  well  if  there 
were  no  disgust  of  any  sense,  to  notify  the  man  before 
the  mistake,  no  torture  in  any  member  to  warn  him 
of  the  error  ?  Would  it  be  well  to  have  an  amount 
of  pain  not  adequate  to  remind  him  of  the  peril  ? 

What  if  a  man  would  not  work  even  for  the  most 
needful  things ;  and  God,  like  a  foolish  mother,  to 
spare  him  the  present  consequences  of  laziness,  either 
by  special  fleeting  miracles,  or  by  general  and 
permanent  law,  gave  him  all  the  desirable  outward 
things  which  now  come  from  the  long  continued  toil 
of  men.     What  if  all  things  came  at  his  desire.     He 

"  —  need  but  wish  and  iristantly  obeyed, 
Fair  ranged  the  dishes  rose  and  thick  the  glasses  played." 

Why  what  a  world  it  would  be,  where  wishes  were 
horses  and  beggars  might  ride ;  a  universal  lubber- 
land,  peopled  by  beggars  on  horseback  riding  after 
their  proverbial  wont !  If  man  lived  he  would  be 
a  suckling  forever,  never  attaining  the  dignity  of 
stripling.  But  he  would  not  live,  thus  conditioned 
only  by  his  wishes.  This  suckling  of  caprice,  like  a 
kite  without  a  string,  would  soon  come  to  the  ground, 
unwarned  by  any  pain  till  death  finished  him.  A 
child  not  conditioned  by  its  parents,  is  a  spoiled 
child,  father  and  mother  only  special  providences  of 
ruin.  A  school  of  children  with  no  schoolmaster  to 
regulate  them  with  "  Thou  shalt,"  and  "  Thou  shall 
not,"  what  a  hurly-burly  is  it  of  most  unprofitable 
29* 


342  PROVIDENCE. 

going  which  goes  nowhere !  A  young  man  suddenly 
made  master  of  an  unexpected  fortune,  and  so  pre- 
sented with  the  freedom  of  riches  he  had  never  won, 
is  always  brought  thereby  in  great  peril,  and  com- 
monly finds  the  excessive  fortune  a  misfortune. 

Imagine  men  so  active  that  they  will  toil  all  the 
time,  and  neither  rest  nor  sleep ;  w^ould  it  be  wise 
and  well  to  leave  them  with  no  possibility  of  pain  to 
warn  them  before  the  frame  lay  there  worn  out 
and  dead  ?  Suppose  they  wrought  by  night  and  not 
by  day,  would  it  be  an  improvement  on  the  present 
state  of  things  if  no  inconvenience  and  no  pain  at- 
tended the  capricious  violation  of  Nature's  law,  until 
death  ended  the  mistake  ? 

Suppose  a  man  worked  at  the  right  time  and  in 
the  right  proportion,  but  worked  wrong,  against  the 
nature  of  things  ;  that  he  planted  his  pear-trees  with 
the  roots  up  and  the  branches  down  ;  or  set  the 
roots  in  husks  of  corn,  in  straw,  in  dried  moss,  in 
the  feathers  of  birds,  or  the  hair  of  beasts ;  and 
made  his  own  bed  out  of  moist  rich  earth,  every 
night,  covering  up  his  limbs  in  that.  Suppose  God 
should  alter  the  constitution  of  things  to  suit  our 
man,  so  that  his  accommodating  pear-tree  grew  and 
bore  fruit,  the  roots  up,  the  branches  down,  or  grew 
out  of  husks  and  hay,  hair  and  feathers  ;  and  that 
his  body  did  not  sutler  from  sleeping  wrapped  up  in 
garden  mould ;  that  the  pear  and  the  man  changed 
beds  capriciously  and  God  made  the  world  accommo- 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   TAIN.  343 

date  the  silly  whim :  would  that  be  an  improvement, 
better  than  the  present  rule  —  "as  you  make  your 
bed  SO  you  must  lie  ?  " 

What  if  a  man  pat  things  to  the  wrong  use  —  mak- 
ing wheaten  bricks  of  the  corn  he  grew,  piling  them 
into  walls  for  his  house,  and  roofing  over  his  paste- 
board palace  with  tiles  of  bread  ;  would  it  be  a  misfor- 
tune if  the  next  storm  soaked  through  his  roof  and 
walls,  and  brought  this  whole  mass  of  unleavened 
bread  upon  the  head  of  its  maker  ? 

What  if  he  made  his  bread  of  wood  and  sand 
and  clay,  not  of  corn,  and  God  interfered  with  our 
booby  and  allowed  him  to  suffer  no  pain  for  his  stu- 
pidity? Would  that  be  a  good  plan?  What  a 
school  the  world  would  be  with  no  regulation  but 
the  finite  caprice  of  each  John  and  Jane! 

If  a  man  provides  the  proper  articles  for  food  and 
shelter,  but  gets  them  in  insufficient  quantity,  or  of  a 
quality  which  will  soon  perish,  or  lives  in  a  spot 
which  is  unhealthy;  would  it  be  well  for  God  to 
twist  the  material  world  so  as  to  accommodate  the 
human  caprice  and  let  him  off  with  a  whole  skin  ? 
Should  you  think  the  world  well  made  if  it  altered 
to  suit  the  caprice  of  each  man  in  it ;  and  if  every 
whimsey  had  a  universal  right  of  way  over  all  the 
world  —  Nature  a  "servitude"  to  nonsense!  If  a 
man  makes  a  cart  to  carry  himself  and  his  chattels 
from  place  to  place,  and  makes  it  ill,  or  drives  it 
badly,  if  it  breaks  down  when  overloaded,  or  turns 


344  PROVIDENCE. 

over  when  one  wheel  is  driven  into  a  ditch  and 
the  other  into  the  air,  and  if  the  man  be  hurt  and 
his  goods  spilled  out,  is  there  a  flaw  in  the  world, 
think  you,  because  he  suffers  chagrin  at  the  fail- 
ure, and  pain  by  the  bruise  ?  When  his  carriage,  ill 
made,  overladen,  driven  badly,  was  about  to  over- 
turn, suppose  its  owner  prayed  to  all  the  saints  in 
heaven,  you  would  not  think  it  a  kindness  in  the  In- 
finite God  to  alter  the  laws  of  Nature  to  suit  this  ill 
conduct  of  a  cart.  Would  you  have  the  man  turn  out 
for  gravitation,  or  have  God  push  the  planet  to  the 
wall  to  let  our  lubber's  cart  go  by  ? 

A  boy  makes  a  kite  with  a  frame  of  iron,  and 
planks  it  over  with  live-oak.  The  thing  would  sink 
in  water ;  shall  God  alter  the  constitution  of  the 
world  and  make  it  float  in  air  ?  or  leave  the  boy  to 
profit  by  his  chagrin,  and  try  till  he  learns  the  laws 
of  Nature  and  makes  a  kite  to  correspond?  If  a 
man  gets  displeased  with  this  planet  and  wishes  to 
ride  round  the  sun  in  his  own  gig,  is  God  to  pave 
the  road  and  furnish  him  a  horse?  Shall  God  give 
the  New  Moon  to  every  baby  who  cries  for  it  ?  The 
girl  pricks  her  fingers  in  learning  to  sew —  shall  God 
make  the  hand  as  senseless  as  the  needle  to  spare 
little  miss  the  use  of  her  wits? 

A  man  sails  the  sea,  he  gets  a  poor  and  leaky 
ship,  ill  moulded,  ill  built,  ill  rigged,  and  over-loaded 
too,  manned  and  mastered  badly ;  he  takes  no  pains 
to  learn  the  coast  he  sails  from,  or  to ;  little  care  to 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  345 

look  out  for  rocks,  or  shoals,  but  sails  up  towards 
land,  all  heedless,  iu  a  storm;  then,  when  his  crazy 
hulk  is  in  imminent  peril,  he  and  his  miserable  crew 

—  all  ignorant  and  half-drunk — for  safety  pray  lus- 
tily to  God.  Is  it  a  hard  thing  that  he  gets  the 
ocean  for  answer;  that  his  planks  go  to  pieces  and 
he  is  strangled  in  the  deep  ;  or  if  with  much  ado  he 
treads  the  waters  under  him  and  comes  alive  to  land 

—  has  he  a  right  to  complain  of  hard  usage  because 
the  fatherly  Providence  did  not  empty  the  waters  out 
of  the  sea  to  save  a  foolish  man  the  trouble  of 
thinking? 

In  making  the  world,  what  if  God  had  fashioned 
it  so  that  shipwreck  was  impossible  ;  that  when  a 
vessel  approached  a  rock,  of  her  own  accord  she 
wore  off,  or  tacked  and  stood  away ;  that  it  was 
needless  for  the  mariner  to  study  navigation,  or  sea- 
manship, or  the  art  of  building  ships,  but  every  tub 
would  sail  perfectly,  with  any  requisite  speed  and 
burden,  and  find  its  own  way  to  any  destined  ha- 
ven ;  so  that  you  need  only  write  thereon,  "  Bound 
for  London,"  and  put  off  from  land,  and  the  craft 
found  its  way  there  as  surely  as  a  stone  to  the  bot- 
tom of  a  well  when  dropped  in  at  the  top ;  that  a 
mariner  need  take  no  thought  at  all,  for  God  tem- 
pered the  wind  to  the  sailor  self-shorn  of  his  wits  I 
Would  that  be  so  good  a  scheme  as  the  present  one 
which  demands  stout  ships — built  with  all  the  art 
of   human  science   to  correspond  with  the   Nature 


346  PROVIDENCE. 

which  God  has  made,  —  prudent  masters,  careful 
men,  a  compass  in  the  binnacle,  a  chart  and  chro- 
nometer in  the  cabin,  light-houses  along  the  coast, 
scrutinizing  surveyors  to  scan  the  heavens,  to  search 
the  bosom  of  the  sea  and  learn  to  trace  the  footsteps 
of  the  storm  and  so  be  served  by  wind  and  tide,  by 
star  and  land  and  sea?  The  shipwreck  brings  loss 
of  goods  and  loss  of  life,  pain  to  full  many  a  heart ; 
but  you  see  what  all  this  suffering  means.  If  I, 
standing  on  the  shore,  saw  a  vessel  about  to  go  to 
pieces  in  a  storm  —  dashed  on  a  rock,  —  had  I  the 
power,  doubtless  in  my  human  weakness  and  igno- 
rance, I  should  rend  the  rock  in  sunder,  or  should 
chide  the  sea,  and  hold  it  back  ere  it  should  swallow 
down  the  ship,  strangling  such  hopeful  life.  But  at 
the  creation  the  Infinite  God  knew  all  the  powers  of 
the  sea,  the  storm,  the  future  ship,  the  men  therein  ; 
foreknew  their  history,  and  doubtless  arranged  all 
well.  For  answer  to  our  special  prayers  comes  the 
eternal  action  of  the  universal  law.  Thus  we  learn 
by  the  elements;  the  winds  are  our  ministers,  the 
sea  not  only  a  constant  ferryman  —  that  huge  St. 
Christopher,  fetching  and  carrying  from  land  to  land, 
—  but  a  teacher  also.  Yea  all  Nature  is  a  "  School- 
master to  bring  us  to  Christ." 

What  sufferings  have  we  seen  of  late  years  on 
emigrant  ships,  crowded  with  passengers  without 
fire,  water,  or  even  air,  heedless,  ill-fed,  unclean? 
What  if  God  "  interposed "  at  the  prayer  of  some 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  347 

mortal  and  allowed  no  man  to  sufTcr  from  cold,  hun- 
ger, or  ship-fever  I  Would  that  be  better  than  to 
leave  man  to  suffer  till  the  nations  learned  the  laws 
of  Nature,  and  enforced  them  by  statutes  of  their 
own,  and  then  .came  safe  across  the  sea,  not  sick,  not 
cold,  not  wet?  God  makes  the  elements  as  perfect 
Cause,  administers  them  as  perfect  Providence,  and 
made  the  mind  of  man  one  element  whereby  to 
work  out  human  welfare.  Shall  not  that  factor  per- 
form its  function? 

Men  build  iron  roads,  and  put  thereon  a  train  of 
iron  cars,  drawn  by  the  iron  horse.  The  axles  are 
iron,  the  wheels  iron  ;  the  friction  is  great,  the  draught 
is  difficult,  the  metal  wears  out.  What  chagrin  of 
engineers,  what  complaint  of  shareholders !  Shall 
God,  by  permanent  law,  or  fleeting  miracle,  alter  the 
constitution  of  things  to  abate  the  friction  —  or 
leave  men  to  study  the  structure  of  their  own  limbs, 
and  make  an  artificial  cartilage  of  compounded 
metals,  and  moisten  it  with  such  synovial  liquor  as 
science  can  devise,  and  so  save  the  wear  and  tear 
of  their  machine  ?  If  a  stone  gets  in  the  boy's 
shoe,  shall  God  all  at  once  soften  the  stone,  or  har- 
den the  foot ;  or  shall  He  leave  the  boy  to  suffer  till 
he  shakes  the  annoyance  from  his  own  shoe  and 
walks  off  erect  and  easy?  If  God  give  adequate 
intellect  at  first,  is  He  to  supersede  the  necessity  of 
using  it?  What  a  Providence  that  would'  be,  at 
cross  purposes  with  itself  I 


348  PROVIDENCE. 

Here  is  a  lazy  young  man,  yet  very  exorbitant ; 
he  wants  the  power  of  riches,  the  honor  of  office, 
the  enjoyment  of  high  culture  —  the  distinction  of 
all  the  three ;  but  he  devotes  himself  only  to  his 
moustache,  his  cigar  and  his  dress.  Is  it  the  fault 
of  Providence  that  he  continues  a  most  uncomforta- 
ble dunce,  neither  respected  nor  respectable  ;  that  he 
is  full  of  pain  and  chagrin,  and  walks  the  street 
with  the  air  of  a  dyspeptic  pirate,  complaining  of 
"  the  ingratitude  of  republics  "  and  talking  of  suicide  ? 
Would  it  be  a  good  thing  if  God  made  money  to 
drop  miraculously  into  his  idle  hands,  crowned  him 
with  office,  and  gave  him  the  culture  which  earnest 
men  elaborate  so  slow  by  painful  thought !  Would 
it  be  kind  in  fact  to  the  grumbler  himself?  A  foolish 
mother  would  give  him  all  these  things  uncondi- 
tioned; the  dear  God  says,  "  What  would  you  have? 
Pay  for  it  and  take  it."  No  spoiled  children  with 
the  Infinite  Mother.  If  Themistocles  feels  chagrin, 
and  cannot  sleep  a-nights  for  thinking  of  the  trophies 
of  Miltiades,  shall  God  come  and  rock  the  cradle  of 
this  great  Athenian  baby ;  or  let  him  lie  awake  till 
he  grows  up  a  great  Athenian  man  ! 

Some  men  add  to  their  family  more  than  they  can 
feed,  shall  God  turn  stones  to  bread,  to  stop  their 
mouths  ?  It  rains  pottage  ;  Esau  will  not  hold  up 
his  dish.  Shall  God  make  rain  come  the  other  way, 
to  please  the  lout?  What  a  world  it  would  soon 
be,  each  hairy  Esau  turning  out  a  whining  clown, 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  349 

not  a  valiant  hunter,  the  world  a  fool's  paradise, 
where  betwixt  man  and  God  it  was  always  "  Hail 
fellow !  well  met." 

If  a  nation  does  not  work,  or  works  wrong, — 
brewing  its  corn  into  beer,  not  baking  it  into  bread, 
producing  rum  and  tobacco,  not  houses  and  cloth ; 
if  it  applies  to  a  wrong  purpose  its  sea-chariots,  or 
land-chariots ;  will  build  forts  and  not  cities,  breed 
soldiers  and  "  nobles,"  not  farmers  and  mechanics, 
—  loaf-consumers,  or  destroyers  of  loaves,  not  loaf- 
makers  —  has  the  nation  a  right  to  complain  against 
God  for  its  want  of  bread?  Or  when  complaining 
with  many  prayers,  shall  God  send  a  miracle  to  feed 
the  men,  not  leave  them  to  hunger  till  their  own 
hands  stop  their  mouth  ?  If  half  the  people  are  left 
uncared  for  by  the  powerful  class  and  turn  out  badly, 
steal,  rob  and  murder,  knowing  no  better,  have  the 
men  who  have  been  careless  a  right  to  complain  at 
the  result  ?  Nay  when  all  African  Hayti  rises  "  in 
blackest  insurrection,"  what  right  has  the  master  to 
complain? 

Not  long  ago  there  was  a  famine  in  Ireland.  It 
was  thought  a  most  hideous  famine  even  in  that 
land  where  hunger  is  the  constant  condition.  Eng- 
land kept  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  asldng  God  to 
"  interpose,  and  withdraw  his  hand !  "  Ah  me  !  The 
prayer  was  sadly  unwise  and  sounded  irreverent. 
Had  the  Father  meddled  unwisely  with  his  world  ? 
The  good  God  had  done  no  wrong ;  his  hand  is 
30 


350  PROVIDENCE. 

never  out  of  place.  The  famine  came  in  mercy  to 
man ;  England  had  oppressed  Ireland,  pushed  the 
Irish  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  and  did  not  seem  to  care 
much  how  soon  they  went  over.  The  Irish  had  not 
planted  corn,  nothing  but  the  potato.  And  that 
would  decay;  not  all  at  once,  but  little  by  little. 
Long  years  ago  the  potato  prophesied,  rising  early 
and  warning  men  whether  they  would  hear  or  for- 
bear: "  I  am  not  fit  to  be  a  nation's  bread.  If  you 
do  not  learn  the  lesson,  why  I  shall  rot  in  the  ground, 
and  you  will  starve  above  it !  "  That  was  the  word 
of  the  Lord  by  the  mouth  of  his  servant  Potato. 
No  prophet  ever  spoke  plainer,  neither  Trojan  Cas- 
sandra, nor  Elias  the  Tishbite.  He  spoke  to  deaf 
ears.  The  many  were  too  ignorant,  or  feeble ;  the 
few  too  idle,  or  selfish,  to  heed  the  word.  So  after 
the  oracle  came  the  history,  and  then  the  lamenta- 
tion, the  fasting  and  the  prayer.  In  other  lands,  here 
in  America,  the  potato  also  failed,  but  men  died  not  in 
consequence ;  they  had  bread  to  eat  and  lived  on. 
What  did  the  famine  mean  ?  It  spoke  plainly  as 
tongue  could  tell,  "  Grow  more  and  better  food,  eat 
and  live.  Oh  ye  Irishmen  !  for  why  will  ye  die  ?  " 

Not  many  centuries  ago  there  was  a  famine  every 
ten  or  twenty  years  in  the  most  refined  nation  of  Eu- 
rope, —  there  were  ten  dreadful  famines  in  France 
in  a  single  century.  The  priests  prayed,  and  said 
"  the  world  is  coming  to  an  end.  God  is  angiy  be- 
cause  you  do  not  come  to  mass  you  unbelievers, 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  351 

you.  He  will  starve  you  to  death,  and  then  torture 
you  in  hell."  But  the  prayer  brought  no  bread. 
Shall  the  prophet  wait  for  the  crow  to  feed  him  ? 
The  feeding  will  be  of  ravens,  not  prophets.  Whence 
came  the  famine  ?  Men  had  fought  each  other  in- 
stead of  conquering  the  forces  of  Nature ;  had  raised 
soldiers,  not  farmers  and  clothiers.  The  famine 
warned  them  of  their  error,  —  a  painful  warning,  but 
the  pain  not  excessive.     It  sowed  wheat. 

A  little  while  ago  there  came  the  cholera,  scaring 
the  world.  Men  attributed  it  to  the  "  wrath  of 
God  ; "  begged  that  dear  Father  "  to  withdraw  his 
hand,"  thinking  Him  meddlesome  and  ill-tempered ! 
Men  had  been  ignorantly  violating  some  of  the  nat- 
ural conditions  of  bodily  well-being,  nay  of  bodily 
existence.  If  we  went  on  so  we  should  all  perish 
and  the  race  die  out.  The  disease  brought  pain  and 
death,  plainly  telling  us  of  our  mistake  and  our  con- 
sequent danger ;  bidding  us  avoid  the  special  cause 
of  that  mischief.  Would  it  have  been  well  for  the 
Infinite  Providence  to  alter  for  our  caprice  the  con- 
stitution of  the  universe  and  the  preestablished  har- 
mony between  Nature  and  the -frame  of  man?  The 
public  prayers  altered  not  the  purposes  of  God,  nor 
his  motive,  nor  his  means.  But  the  board  of  health 
swept  the  cholera  out  of  many  a  town. 

Man  is  sick,  he  prays  for  health.  Shall  God 
abolish  the  pain,  or  leave  man  to  find  out  and  re- 


352  PROVIDENCE. 

move  the  causes  of  his  body's  gi*ief  and  seek  medi- 
cine to  palliate  the  disorder  —  while 

"  In  every  path 
He  treads  do^vn  that  which  doth  hefriend  hhn 
When  sickness  makes  him  pale  and  wan  ! " 

All  these  forms  of  pain  and  misery  are  clearly  of 
a  remedial  character,  and  come  to  warn  us  of  a  mis- 
take, to  drive  us  from  error  before  we  are  ruined. 
Without  the  pain,  we  should  have  been  yet  more 
pained.  If  our  request  could  be  granted  without 
the  fulfilment  of  the  natural  condition  thereof,  it 
would  send  leanness  into  our  souls. 

"  To  have  my  aim ;  and  yet,  to  he 
Further  from  it,  than  when  I  bent  my  bow  — 
To  make  my  hopes,  my  torture ;  and  the  fee 

Of  all  my  woes,  another  woe  — 
Is  in  the  midst  of  delicates  to  need, 
And  e'en  in  Paradise  to  be  a  weed," 

The  pain  we  feel  at  the  premature  death  of  our 
associates  is  of  the  same  character.  Old  age,  I 
take  it,  is  the  only  natural  death  for  man.  That  we 
never  mourn  at,  nor  regard  as  evil.  My  father,  a 
hale  man  of  threescore,  laid  in  the  ground  his  own 
mother,  fourscore  and  twelve  years  old.  She  went 
thither  gladly,  with  no  anguish,  no  fear,  with  little 
pain  ;  went  as  a  tall  pine  tree  in  the  woods  comes 


THE  ECONOMY   OP  PAIN.  353 

to  the  ground  at  the  touch  of  a  winter  wind,  its 
branches  heavy  with  snow,  its  trunk  feeble,  its  root 
sapless,  worn  out  and  old.  He  shed  no  tears,  he 
was  not  sorry  that  the  shoQk  of  corn  fully  ripened  on 
earth  was,  in  due  time,  gathered  to  Heaven.  He 
need  not  mourn  ;  he  should  not  mourn.  It  was  the 
course  of  Nature ;  and  the  child  piously  buried  the 
venerable,  hoary  head  of  his  mother,  long  knocking  at 
the  gate,  and  asking  to  be  let  through.  But  if  he  lost 
a  child,  it  was  a  sad  day,  a  dark  year ;  for  the  child 
perished  immature.  Sadly  in  June  or  July  the  gar- 
dener sees  his  unripe  apples  scattered  on  the  ground, 
disappointing  his  hopes  of  harvest.     But  when 

"  An  apple,  waxing  over  mellow, 
Drops  in  some  autumn  night," 

he  only  rejoices  that  Nature's  ways  come  rounding 
to  their  appropriate  end.  When  the  father  buries 
the  child,  the  mourning  Rachel,  refusing  to  be  com- 
forted, shows  there  is  a  mistake  somewhere ;  the 
pain  warns  us  thereof  before  .we  all  perish. 

This  seems  to  be  the  meaning  and  the  merciful 
use  of  the  grief  we  feel  at  laying  down  our  dear 
ones  immature,  when  these  leaves  of  our  tree  are 
shattered  ''  before  the  mellowing  year."  At  the  pre- 
sent day  such  is  the  state  of  medical  science  that 
the  doctors  know  almost  as  little  of  man's  body  as 
the  clergy  know  of  his  spirit.  Between  disease  and 
the  doctor  there  is  a  wall,  thick  and  high,  with  here 
30* 


354  PROVIDEXCE. 

and  there  a  loop-hole  which  some  scientific  man  has 
made.  Men  look  through  and  see  dimly  in  spots  ; 
and  pass  through  some  medicines  and  advice,  to 
palliate  the  mischief  a  little.  The  pain  we  feel 
when  our  friends  die  an  unnatural  death  ;  our  own 
reluctance  to  depart —  life's  duties  not  half  done,  nor 
half  its  joys  possessed;  —  the  sympathy  which  all 
men  feel  with  those  that  suffer  thus,  making  anoth- 
er's misery  our  own,  —  these  drive  us  to  break  down 
that  wall,  to  cure  the  disease,  to  learn  the  law  of 
health,  that  all  may  ride  in  sound  bodies  the  stage 
of  mortal  life,  check  the  steeds  at  the  proper  bound, 
dismount  from  the  flesh,  and  continue  our  jour- 
ney in  such  other  chariot  as  God  provides  for  the 
ascension. 

A  child  plays  on  the  edge  of  a  rock  ;  the  mother 
creeps  up  stealthily,  and  suddenly  plucks  away  the 
romantic  boy  loving  to  look  down  into  the  deep 
darkness.  Pain  comes  on  the  same  motherly  errand. 
Shall  God  let  us  fall  in,  not  warned  of  the  pit  ? 

The  terrible  diseases  which  sweep  off  half  the 
human  race  before  they  count  three  summers,  those 
which  decimate  the  ranks  of  adult  men,  are  a  warn- 
ing to  mankind  showing  that  we  live  unwisely  yet. 
The  result  of  the  pain  we  suffer  is  a  continual  effort 
to  live  wiser,  better,  longer,  and  so  the  term  of  hu- 
man life  continually  grows  more  and  more. 

All  the  pain  and  misery  of  the  character  thus  far 


THE   ECOXOMY   OF   PAIN.  255 

spoken  of,  are  plainly  medical  and  benevolent.  If 
it  did  not  hurt  the  hands  to  burn,  or  freeze  them,  who 
of  us  would  grow  up  with  a  finger?  If  feet  did  not 
smart  with  abuse,  they  would  be  treated  as  shoes, 
worn  out  in  childhood ;  and  no  hardy  boy  would 
have  a  foot  left.  If  broken  teeth  did  not  ache,  so 
long  as  walnuts  have  a  shell,  no  boy  would  be  safe ; 
the  world  would  be  full  of  toothless  striplings.  The 
pain  of  poverty  and  want,  of  ignorance,  of  disap- 
pointed ambition,  of  affections  bereaved  or  disap- 
pointed in  a  sadder  sort ;  of  the  accidents  to  individ- 
uals by  flood  and  field,  to  nations  by  war ;  of  the 
diseases  which  prey  upon  mankind  —  the  rats  and 
mice  of  the  world's  housekeeping, — it  all  has  this 
meaning  and  this  use.  See  with  what  scorpion 
whips  Poverty  drives  the  Irishman  out  of  Ireland ; 
and  pursues  him  in  America,  forcing  him  to  work 
and  think.  The  American  beggar  hears  the  lash 
which  once  he  felt,  and  avoids  the  blow.  In  half  a 
century  we  shaU  see  the  result  —  the  Irishman  will 
be  also  industrious,  thoughtful,  well-fed,  well-clad. 
Men  run  trains  of  railroad  cars  together,  or  attempt  to 
pass  a  river  when  the  draw -bridge  is  up  ;  and  there  is 
the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crush  of  men.  The  rem- 
edy for  the  pain  is  at  hand.  The  great  annual  de- 
struction of  human  life  in  America,  by  the  careless- 
ness of  men  who  control  the  land  and  water  car- 
riages wherein  the  public  ride,  is  a  warning  against 
our  folly ;  the  evil  perfectly  within  the  control  of  men. 


356  PROYIDEXCE. 

All  these  things  must  needs  have  been  foreseen. 
The  attendant  pain  is  the  constant  check  on  human 
caprice,  the  constant  of  Nature  which  controls  our 
variable  whim. 

See  how  pain  occasioned  by  loss  of  friends,  with 
the  wide  sympathy  it  calls  out,  forces  us  to  study 
the  laws  of  health,  to  cure  the  sick,  to  keep  men 
sound.  Famine  makes  men  creative  to  produce, 
and  prudent  to  spare.  The  cholera  teaches  tem- 
perance and  cleanliness,  which  once  the  plague  bid 
mankind  learn.  Every  case  of  typhoid  warns  us  of 
broken  law ;  a  shipwreck  rings  the  bell  to  notify  us 
to  have  stouter  vessels,  or  have  them  better  sailed, 
with  fitter  apparatus  on  board,  and  better  beacons 
on  the  coast.  If  men  are  too  indolent,  and  will  not 
rule  themselves,  the  tyrant  binds  on  his  burdens, 
which  grow  more  and  more  difficult  to  be  borne.  The 
suffering  from  bad  political  institutions  in  Naples, 
Spain,  Hungary,  and  all  the  world,  is  not  more  than 
sufficient  to  warn  mankind,  to  make  them  seek  out 
and  avoid  the  cause  of  smart.  A  nation  like  a  man, 
shivers  long  at  night,  before  it  gets  courage  to  rise, 
to  hew  wood,  to  build  a  fire  and  so  be  warm  again. 
Is  the  pain  of  Europe  at  this  day  too  great  for  this 
end  ?  The  frost  does  not  yet  bite  sharp  enough  to 
wake  mankind  from  savage  sleep.  Before  us  Pain, 
a  flitting  messenger,  hurries  to  warn  us ;  behind  us 
stands  Misery  to  drive.  But  the  one  warns  us  from 
our  bale ;  the  other  drives  us  to  our  bliss. 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  357 

If  we  pursue  the  inductive  course  as  far  as  we  can 
see,  and  then  follow  the  way  of  deduction  from  the 
Infinite  God,  to  this  conclusion  must  we  come  at 
last  —  that  the  present  physical  pain  and  misery  in  the 
world  of  animals  and  men  is  not  an  absolute  evil ; 
quite  far  from  it,  it  is  a  partial  Good ;  that  it  is  dis- 
ciplinary, preparing  us  for  the  ultimate  and  absolute 
Good. 

But  after  all  this  is  clearly  made  out,  it  must  still 
be  confessed  that  there  are  millions  of  men  who 
from  no  conscious  evil  of  their  own  suffer  a  great 
deal  of  misery,  and  pass  out  of  life  apparently  un- 
recompensed ;  —  the  men  who  are  cut  off  in  early 
life,  who  are  tortured  by  disease,  stung  by  poverty, 
who  are  sacrificed  to  the  purposes  of  the  race,  and 
leave  their  lesson  to  others ;  men  disappointed  in 
their  tenderest  affections ;  those  whose  hearts  are  so 
sadly  bereaved  that  they  go  mourning  all  their  days. 
For  the  negative,  or  positive,  evil  they  suffer  here, 
the  only  adequate  compensation  must  come  in 
another  state  of  being,  beyond  the  grave.  I  know 
not  the  means,  no  man  knows ;  perhaps  no  man  can 
ever  know  in  this  life.  But  as  God  is  Infinite  ;  and 
creates  all  from  a  perfect  motive,  of  perfect  material, 
for  a  perfect  purpose  and  as  a  perfect  means  thereto, 
it  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  ultimate  welfare  of 
each  animal  or  human  creature  must  at  last  be 
made  sure.  This  does  not  follow  from  any  of  the 
finite  conceptions  of  Deity  —  from  Jupiter  or  Zeus, 


358  PROVIDENCE. 

from  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament,  or  the  God 
of  the  popular  theology ;  but  it  follows  unavoidably 
from  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  God.  As  a  fluent 
point  generates  a  line,  so  the  Infinite  God  generates 
blessedness,  and  ever  blessedness,  and  only  blessed- 
ness. So  all  the  pain  and  misery  God's  creatures 
suffer,  must  one  day  be  abundantly  repaid.  It  was 
all  foreseen  and  provided  for  by  Him  "  who  is  of  all 
Creator  and  Defence,"  as  a  part  of  his  scheme,  here 
a  resultant  of  necessitated  force,  there  the  contingent 
of  individual  freedom  acting  in  contact  with  other 
forces.  But  in  both  cases  must  it  be  perfectly  pro- 
vided for.  This  is  as  certain  as  that  one  atid  one 
make  two.  For  as  the  last  conclusion  of  a  geomet- 
ric demonstration  follows  unavoidably  from  the 
axioms  of  mathematic  science  and  the  data  of  the 
problem,  so  ultimate,  complete  and  perfect  welfare 
follows  from  the  Infinite  Perfection  of  God.  He  has 
made  pain  and  misery  part  of  the  discipline  of  this 
life ;  it  must  have  been  in  infinite  benevolence  that 
He  did  so.  Mankind  is  doubtless  saved  by  present 
suffering  from  suffering  worse.  Not  by  the  sufferings 
of  Jesus,  but  its  own  is  mankind  saved.  Our  own 
pain  and  misery  are  educational  discipline  ;  if  the 
roots  of  culture  be  bitter,  doubtless  the  blossom  will 
be  fair  and  fragrant,  and  the  final  fruit  sweet  to  our 
soul.  The  pain  and  misery  which  others  suffer  from 
ignorance  and  causes  beyond  their  own  control,  help 
teach  us  charity.     The  time,  the  means,  the  effort 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  359 

we  expend  in  their  behalf  is  often  so  much  devoted 
to  our  highest  culture,  —  the  education  of  Conscience, 
of  the  Affections,  yea,  of  the  Soul  which  by  nature 
turns  to  God. 


Now  then  where  is  the  absolute  Evil  of  Pain  and 
Misery  of  this  character  ?  There  is  none  such  I 
Two  angels,  archangels  if  men  will  name  them 
such  —  Gabriel  and  Michael,  —  come  to  warn  us  ; 
not  exceptions  to  God's  Providence,  ministers  thereof, 
they  come  to  man  and  bird  and  beast,  on  the  same 
errand  of  benevolence  to  warn  —  us  of  a  mistake  ;  not 
angels  with  a  flaming  sword  turning  every  way  to 
keep  us  from  the  Tree  of  Life  ;  angels  they  are  who 
walk  between  us  and  the  Tree  of  Death  to  keep 
man  from  the  Upas  of  ruin. 

If  the  world  of  matter  were  to  end  to-day,  it  would 
seem  a  failure,  for  now  only  the  spring-time  of  the 
world's  long  year  is  present,  and  man  goes  forth, 
ignorant  and  weeping,  and  with  pain  scatters  seeds 
which  one  day,  all  and  each,  are  to  bear  manifold  the 
bounteous  harvest  of  immortal  joy.  But  all  around 
us  seems  made  for  stable  duration,  and  is  auspicious 
of  a  glorious  future  for  mankind  on  earth.  We 
feel,  the  coldest  of  men  feel  deeply  and  by  instinctive 
nature,  that  the  misery  of  the  world  is  only  a  grow- 
ing pain,  not  a  declining  one. 


360  PROYIDEXCE. 

"  Slight  symptoms  these  ;  but  shepherds  know 
How  hot  the  mid-day  sun  shall  glow 
From  the  mists  of  morning  sky." 

I  have  often  asked  yon  to  notice  how  the  material 
forces  of  Nature  work  together,  how  wisely  they  are 
distributed ;  how  beautiful  are  the  statical  and  dy- 
namical laws  of  Nature ;  how  wonderfully  Centripe- 
tal and  Centrifugal,  those  two  strong  horses  of  the 
Almighty,  sweep  this  earthly  chariot  through  the  sky ; 
how  chemical  and  vital  forces  serve  the  economy  of 
God,  and  how  in  the  world  of  matter  the  minimum 
of  means  produces  the  maximum  of  end.  Yet 
even  these,  in  Nature,  we  see  but  little  of  the  whole, 
and  know  but  little  of  what  we  see.  Things  yet 
uncomprehended  continually  appear.  It  is  but  a 
single  page  in  Nature's  book  we  have  learned  to 
read. 

So  far  as  human  science  reaches  it  is  plain 
that  the  sensibility  to  suffering  is  distributed  with 
the  same  wisdom  as  the  organic  forces  of  the  world ; 
that  Pain  and  Pleasure  have  each  their  calculated 
work  to  do,  both  foreknown  at  creation,  and  eternally 
provided  for.  In  this  vast  and  much  entangled  laby- 
rinth of  living  things  it  is  more  difficult  to  see  our 
way  than  among  the  material  elements, 

"  —  the  eldest  hu-th 
Of  Nature's  womb,  that  in  quaternion  run 
Perpetual  circle,  multifonn,  and  mix 
And  nourish  all  things." 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  361 

But  wlieii  we  see  the  whole  we  recognize  the  bounti- 
ful benevolence  of  God.  Bacon  devised  his  New  In- 
strument for  human  thought,  the  Novum  Organum 
of  physical  science;  Newton  wrote  out  in  mathe- 
matic  poetry  the  Principia  of  the  Universe,  the  laws 
that  govern  quantity  in  space ;  La  Place  yet  more 
magnificently  set  forth  the  fair  mechanics  of  the 
sky,  the  mathematic  laws  of  the  heavenly  machine, 
of  whose  composite  forces  Beauty  and  stable  Har- 
mony are  the  perpetual  result ;  Von  Humboldt — labo- 
rious still,  grown  old  in  being  taught  and  teaching, 
his  mind  youthful  with  all  the  scientific  riches  of  the 
world  swept  into  the  German  Ocean  of  his  long  liv- 
ing consciousness,  —  groups  into  a  Harmonious 
Whole  this  Kosmos  of  material  force,  painting  in 
words  the  universe,  the  great,  majestic,  Amazonian 
Flower  of  God  floating  upon  the  sea  of  space. 

And  what  a  world  of  harmonious  beauty  it  is,  as 
seen  by  the  material  eye  and  then  reflected  in  the 
educated  mind  of  these  philosophers!  But  when 
some  man,  with  mind  greater  than  the  greatest  of 
these,  shall  gather  into  his  more  affluent  conscious- 
ness a  corresponding  knowledge  of  the  world  of  ani- 
mals and  men ;  shall  devise  the  New  Instrument  of 
a  higher  science ;  write  in  more  than  mathematic 
poetry  the  Principia  of  this  sensitive  universe,  the 
laws  that  govern  life  in  time  and  space,  magnificently 
setting  forth  the  fair  mechanics  of  the  world,  its 
metaphysic  laws,  whose  ultimate  resultant  is  lovelier 

31 


362  PROVIDENCE. 

Beauty  and  Harmony  of  a  yet  sweeter  accord ;  and 
grouping  to  a  harmonious  whole  this  other  Kosmos 
of  vital  and  personal  forces,  painting  in  words  this 
white,  Amazonian  lily  of  bliss  floating  on  the  river 
of  God —  why,  what  a  wealth  of  wisdom,  of  justice 
of  love  and  holiness  will  it  not  reveal  in  the  mind  of 
the  Infinite  God,  Father  and  Mother  of  all  that  are ! 
Then  by  the  inductive  mode  alone,  without  deduc- 
tion from  the  idea  of  God,  but  only  by  the  study  of 
facts  and  history,  shall  men  prove  —  what  I  can 
only  postulate  —  the  perfect  workmanship  of  God. 
In  the  pain  and  suffering  of  mankind,  and  of  our 
feebler  attendants,  I  see  the  promise  of  a  glorious 
future  for  mankind.  I  know  there  is  a  recompense  for 
every  sparrow  robbed  of  her  young,  or  prematurely 
falling  to  the  ground  ;  that  the  infinite  Herdsman  of 
the  universe  takes  thought  for  oxen,  and  is  a  perfect 
Providence  for  the  individual  and  for  all  mankind. 
The  history  of  the  Vvorld  is  indeed  the  judgm^ent  of 
the  world,  but  not  the  final ;  and  what  it  bears  off 
unrewarded  it  carries  to  the  great  ocean  of  Eternity, 
where  exact  justice  shall  be  done  in  love  to  every 
creature  of  the  dear  eternal  God* 


X. 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   MORAL   ERROR   UNDER    THE 
UNIVERSAL  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD. 


HE    IIATH   MADE    NOTHING    IMPEEFECT.  — Ecclcsiastic.  xlii.  24. 

Last  Sunday  I  spoke  of  one  form  of  Evil,  of  the 
physical  Pain  and  Misery  in  the  World  of  Animals 
and  Men,  which  come  from  violating  the  physical 
conditions  of  welfare  ;  designing  to  show  the  Func- 
tion and  Economy  thereof  in  the  Providence  of 
God.  To-day  I  wish  to  speak  of  the  other  form  of 
Evil,  of  the  Pain  and  Misery  which  comes  from  vio- 
lating other  conditions  of  welfare  ;  of  Moral  Error 
and  Sin,  with  their  consequences  ;  designing  to  show 
the  Function  and  Economy  thereof  in  the  Provi- 
dence of  God.  The  two  departments  of  inquiry 
are  lands,  lying  side  by  side,  indistinctly  separated, 
locking  into  each  other  by  many  plies  and  folds,  so 
that  the  stream  which  rises  in  one  runs  into  the 
other,  and  it  is  difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  in  all 
cases  to  say  where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends,  so 


364  PROVIDENCE. 

indistinct  are  the  boundaries.     In  both  these  sermons 
I  often  cross  the  lines. 

In  Theological  Ethics  there  are  some  broad  dis- 
tinctions of  things,  marked  by  corresponding  distinc- 
tions of  language,  which  ought  to  be  borne  in  mind. 
Here  are  some  of  the  terms  I  shall  use  in  a  technical 
sense  in  this  sermon. 

«  A  Mistake  is  the  violation  of  some  Rule  of  Cor- 
rectness, or  of  Expediency.  To  do  inexpediently  is 
a  mistake.  It  produces  an  experiment  which  fails, 
because  the  calculation  on  which  it  is  founded  is  in- 
correct. Jehu  would  go  from  Bethany  to  Jerusalem ; 
he  misconceives  the  way;  takes  the  wrong  road, 
comes  out  at  Bethlehem  instead  and  loses  his  journey. 
A  mistake  has  its  origin  in  an  intellectual  deficien- 
cy, a  lack  of  knowledge.  It  may  be  a  lack  of  knowl- 
edge in  general,  Jehu  never  knew  the  way  from 
Bethany  to  Jerusalem ;  or  a  lack  of  knowledge  at 
that  special  time  —  he  had  forgotten,  he  had  not  his 
w^its  about  him,  he  did  not  take  heed  to  his  ways, 
and  so  he  lost  his  journey.  It  may  come  from  a 
lack  of  general  intellectual  power.  Thus  a  fool  mis- 
takes stones  for  bread.  There  are  men  of  weak 
minds,  who  do  not  discern  clearly  by  their  intellect ; 
or  whose  intellectual  perceptions  do  not  much  influ- 
ence their  will  and  their  conduct,  —  simpletons, 
idiots,  fools,  in  respect  to  power  of  mind,  they  often 
make  mistakes  through  lack  of  wit. 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  365 

Mistakes  of  this  sort  are  often  called  Errors  ;  and 
so  men  speak  of  "  errors  of  the  press,"  "  errors  of  lon- 
gitude," "  errors  of  calculation,"  and  the  like.  In 
such  cases  in  this  sermon,  I  will  use  the  word  Mis- 
take, to  reserve  the  term  "  Error  "  for  another  and 
strictly  technical  use. 

An  Error  is  the  unconscious  and  involuntary  vio- 
lation of  some  Rule  of  Right,  of  the  Moral  Law  of 
God.  It  is  to  the  Conscience  what  a  mistake  is  to 
the  intellect  —  it  is  a  moral  mistake,  as  a  mistake  is 
an  intellectual  error.  To  do  unjustly  is  an  Error,  as 
to  do  inexpediently  is  a  Mistake.  One  violates  the 
Rule  of  Right,  the  other  the  Rule  of  Expediency. 
Every  Error  is  also  a  mistake,  for  w^hat  is  usually 
wrong  is  always  partially  and  ultimately  inexpe- 
dient ;  but  every  Mistake  is  not  also  an  Error.  Jehu 
did  no  moral  wrong  by  mistaking  the  high  road  to 
Bethlehem  for  that  to  Jerusalem. 

Here  is  an  example  of  Error:  the  ill-bred  boys 
steal  apples  from  Ahab's  garden ;  to  correct  them, 
he  shuts  the  offenders  up  in  jail  with  old  and  accom- 
plished rogues,  where  they  grow  worse  by  their  con- 
finement ;  the  well-meant  correction  wrongs  and 
worsens  the  boys.  He  has  violated  a  moral  law  of 
God,  the  natural  rule  of  right,  seeking  to  overcome 
the  evil  in  them  by  another  evil  out  of  them,  setting 
his  vengeance  against  their  trespass.  But  he  did  this 
unconsciously  and  involuntarily :  he  did  not  know 
31* 


366  PROVIDENCE. 

there  was  such  a  natural  law  ;  he  had  no  intention 
of  doing  wrong ;  he  knew  no  better  way  to  guard 
his  orchard  and  correct  the  young  marauders. 

Error  comes  from  deficiency  of  moral  power  — 
general,  or  special,  from  a  lack  of  moral  knowledge : 
Ahab  never  knew  the  Rule  of  Right  which  applies 
to  such  cases,  that  justice  is  the  medicine  for  injus- 
tice, love  for  hate,  and  good  for  evil ;  or  he  had  for- 
gotten, and  did  not  recollect  it  at  the  time ;  or,  if  he 
did,  his  general  human  conscience  was  borne  down 
by  his  special  and  particular  sense  of  the  loss ;  and 
for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  never  known  any 
better.  There  are  men  of  weak  conscience  —  such 
as  do  not  discern  morally,  or  whose  moral  percep- 
tions do  not  much  influence  their  will,  —  moral  sim- 
pletons, moral  idiots,  moral  fools.  They  often  com- 
mit Errors,  as  feeble  children  stumble,  and  mouths 
ill-formed  stammer  and  cannot  talk. 

A  Crime  is  a  Violation  of  some  Human  Statute 
—  some  positive  rule  of  conduct  laid  down  by  the 
government.  To  do  illegally  is  a  crime.  Thus  it  is 
a  crime  in  Boston  to  drive  a  wagon  on  the  left  hand 
side  of  the  street,  in  Berlin  on  the  right  hand  side. 
In  the  District  of  Columbia  it  is  a  crime  to  harbor 
or  conceal  a  slave  who  has  run  away  from  one  of 
the  Barbary  States  of  America;  in  the  District  of 
Tunis  it  is  a  crime  not  to  harbor  and  conceal  a  slave 
who  has  run  away  from  one  of  the  Barbary  States 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  367 

of  Africa.  In  Boston  it  is  a  crime  to  take  a  white 
dollar  which  is  not  yours  and  aj^propriate  it  to  your 
use,  and  the  man  who  does  this  is  put  in  jail ;  while 
it  is  no  crime,  but  a  legal  service,  to  take  this  black 
man,  who  belongs  not  to  you,  but  to  himself,  and  ap- 
propriate him  to  your  use.  The  man  who  doe^  such 
deeds  is  held  in  honor.  Christianity  is  a  crime  at 
Constantinople,  Mohammedanism  at  Rome,  and 
effective  humanity  shown  to  a  black  woman  escaping 
from  her  "  owner  "  in  Carolina,  is  a  crime  in  Bos- 
ton. To  help  Shadrach  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
man-stealers  of  Boston  was  the  highest  crime  known 
to  American  law  ;  it  was  "  levying  war,"  treason,  lia- 
ble to  be  punished  with  death ;  in  Halifax  it  would 
be  the  fulfilment  of  the  golden  rule  and  rendering  a 
service  unto  Jesus  Christ.  To  protect  Ellen  Craft 
while  kidnapJDcrs  were  clutching  at  her  life,  was  a 
crime  in  New  England ;  in  Old  England  it  is  an 
honor.  If  a  man  in  this  city  should  seize  and  force 
into  bondage  Cuban  negroes  escaping  hither  from  a 
monarchic  fetter,  he  would  commit  a  crime  :  but 
there  are  persons  here  whose  official  and  legal  func- 
tion it  is  to  seize  and  force  into  bondage  American 
negroes,  escaping  hither  from  a  democratic  fetter ; 
commissioned  for  that  very  purpose.  To  kill  an  un- 
offending man  for  your  own  personal  pleasure  or 
profit  in  Massachusetts,  is  a  crime ;  in  New  Zealand 
it  is  a  matter  of  common  practice.  The  professional 
man-butcher  has  a  legal  existence  in  New  Zealand, 


o68  PROVIDENCE. 

I  am  told,  as  much  as  the  professional  man-stealer 
in  Boston.  It  is  a  crime  to  resist  either  in  his  local 
function. 

A  Crime  may  be  a  mistake  ;  or  it  may  be  an  error, 
for  the  human  statute  violated  may  represent  the 
natural  rule  of  expediency,  or  of  right.  Or  it  may 
be  neither  an  error,  nor  a  mistake ;  for  the  human 
statute  violated,  may  itself  be  both  inexpedient  and 
unjust,  as  in  the  acts  establishing  the  man-butcher 
at  New  Zealand  and  the  man-stealer  at  Boston.  It 
is  no  function  of  the  official  executors  of  the  statute 
to  inquire  whether  it  corresponds  to  the  rule  of  right. 
The  judge  and  the  hangman  are  to  be  just  as  active 
in  punishing  a  man  for  rescuing  Shadrach  from  the 
kidnappers,  as  in  punishing  the  worst  of  pirates,  red 
all  over  with  human  blood ;  for  such  officers  are  of 
law,  not  Justice,  and  a  crime  is  an  offence  against 
law  whether  just  or  unjust. 

A  Sin  is  a  conscious  and  voluntary  or  wilful  vio- 
lation of  a  known  law  of  God.  To  do  wickedly  is 
a  Sin.  This  does  not  come  from  lack  of  intellectual 
perception,  nor  from  lack  of  moral  perception ;  but 
from  an  unwillingness  to  do  the  known  Right,  and 
a  willingness  to  do  the  known  Wrong.  It  comes 
from  some  other  deficiency,  a  compound  deficiency 
—  from  lack  of  affectional  power,  or  of  religious  pow- 
er, or  from  a  perverse  will. 

Here  is  an  example :  Henry  honestly  owes  John  a 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  369 

talent  of  gold,  and  can  pay  him,  but  will  not,  though 
John  needs  the  money.  The  Non-payment  is  a  neg- 
ative Sin.  William  knows  it  is  naturally  wrong  to 
steal,  he  is  rich  and  has  no  material  occasion  to  make 
stealing  excusable,  but  he  robs  Dorcas,  a  poor  unpro- 
tected seamstress.     The  Theft  is  a  positive  Sin. 

Sin  is  a  violation  of  the  Rule  of  Right ;  and  so  is 
distinguished  from  a  Mistake.  It  is  conscious  and 
voluntary  ;  and  so  is  distinguished  from  an  Error.  It 
is  a  violation  of  a  Natural  Law  of  God ;  and  is  thus 
distinguished  from  a  Crime. 

I  might  discriminate  a  little  more  nicely  and  make 
a  distinction  between  a  Subjective  Sin — which  is  a 
conscious  violation  of  what  is  thought  to  be  a  natu- 
ral law,  but  is  not;  and  an  Objective  Sin,  a  conscious 
violation  of  what  is  a  natural  law.  In  each  case  the 
integrity  of  consciousness  is  disturbed. 

So  much  for  the  definition  of  terms. 

There  may  be  various  degrees  of  Error  and  of 
Sin.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  where  one  begins  and  the 
other  ends ;  for  in  ethics  as  in  all  science,  it  is  not 
easy  to  distinguish  things  by  their  circumferences, 
where  they  blend,  but  only  by  their  centres,  where 
the  difference  is  most  clearly  marked. 

It  is  sometimes  said  there  can  be  no  such  Error, 
or  Sin,  as  I  speak  of.  This  is  one  doctrine  of  that 
pantheistic  scheme,  before  mentioned,  which  appears 


370  PROVIDENCE. 

ill  so  many  forms  and  under  such  antagonistic 
names.  A  natural  law  of  God,  it  is  asserted,  can 
no  more  be  violated,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
by  man  than  by  matter.  A  Sin,  therefore  —  in  the 
meaning  just  affixed  to  that  word  —  is  as  impossi- 
ble as  a  solar  eclipse  at  the  time  of  full  moon ;  or  as 
a  straight  line  which  is  not  the  shortest  distance  be- 
tween two  points ;  it  is  the  law  of  God,  and  so  the 
will  of  God  that  William  should  rob  the  seamstress, 
Henry  neglect  to  pay  John,  and  Ahab  clap  the  boys 
into  jail  for  pilfering  his  apples. 

The  distinction  between  the  normality  of  matter, 
and  the  normality  of  man  if  not  obvious,  is  yet  clear 
enough.  In  physical  science  we  learn  the  law  of 
matter  by  seeing  what  is  done ;  it  is  derived  from 
facts  of  observation  ;  by  a  natural  intellectual  pro- 
cess, from  all  the  facts  we  know  we  gather  the  Law 
of  the  Facts,  that  is,  the  Natural  Mode  of  Opera- 
tion of  the  material  forces  we  study.  Thus  we 
know  the  law  by  seeing  its  observance ;  know  it  to 
be  binding  by  seeing  things  bound  by  it,  as  far  as 
we  see  at  all.  It  is  found  solely  by  the  inductive 
process,  by  observation  and  demonstration.  It  is  an 
Idea  which,  so  to  say,  rests  always  on  two  pillars 
of  fact,- — Facts  of  Observation,  Facts  of  Demon- 
stration. There  is  no  actual  exception  to  the  gene- 
ral law ;  a  single  contrary  fact  would  show  us  there 
was  no  such  law  as  we  supposed.  In  Nature  the 
ideal  and  the  actual  are  the  same,  —  the  ideal  law 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  371 

and  the  actual  fact.  This  is  true  in  mathematics, 
true  also  iu  physics.  Theory  and  practice  are  iden- 
tical. 

In  ethical  science,  we  learn  the  law  of  human  na- 
ture—  that  is  the  Natural  Mode  of  Operation  of  the 
human  forces  in  Thomas,  or  in  mankind  —  not  by  ob- 
servation and  demonstration,  but  by  an  intuition  of 
consciousness.  The  law  is  not  a  fact  of  observation 
or  demonstration,  but  of  consciousness.  It  is  just 
as  much  a  law  of  human  nature  if  Ahab,  Henry, 
and  William  have  violated  it  all  their  lives,  as  if  they 
had  consciously  complied  therewith.  If  we  merely 
take  all  the  facts  of  observation  made  upon  man  and 
thence  induce  a  law,  we  can  only  see  what  has 
worked  well  hitherto,  and  get  an  empirical  knowl- 
edge of  the  expedient  in  time  past ;  the  conclusion 
represents  the  facts  of  human  history,  not  the  facts 
of  human  nature ;  it  applies,  at  best,  only  to 
those  faculties  already  developed  and  enjoyed, 
not  to  those  others  yet  undeveloped.  And  of 
course  our  scheme  of  ethics  will  have  the  imper- 
fections which  belong  to  the  persons  or  actions, 
who  furnish  us  the  facts.  The  Ideal  will  not 
transcend  the  Actual,  but  be  identical  with  it. 
Man  has  uniformly  exploitered  woman ;  the  govern- 
ment, the  people ;  the  strong,  the  weak ;  "  it  is  the 
natural  ethical  law  of  human  nature  that  this  should 
be  so."  That  would  be  a  fair  conclusion  from  this 
mode  of  procedure.     Indeed  the  atheist  —  who  stud- 


372  PROVIDENCE. 

ies  man  in  this  way,  —  tells  us  it  is  so ;  the  consist- 
ent popular  theologian,  who  follows  the  same  course, 
assures  us  that  we  can  get  nothing  better  from  "  the 
light  of  Nature ; "  that  all  higher  ethics  come  only 
of  "  miraculous  revelation." 

But  by  attending  to  the  facts  of  consciousness,  to  the 
moral  instincts  ;  and  by  the  direct  action  of  the  moral 
faculties  which  do  not  follow,  but  anticipate,  expe- 
rience, we  learn  from  human  nature,  not  merely  from 
human  history.  Thus  we  get  knowledge  of  a  law  of 
human  nature  which  is  an  ideal  of  consciousness, 
though  not  yet  the  actual  of  experience.  It  is  in 
a  great  measure  a  matter  of  will  whether  we  follow 
this  law  and  realize  this  ideal,  or  not.  It  is  our 
duty  to  obey  this  ideal  law  when  \ve  know  it ;  con- 
sciously and  wilfully  to  violate  it,  is  Sin. 

Philosophically  to  deny  the  possibility  of  this  kind 
of  Error  and  of  Sin,  you  must  deny  either  that  there 
is  any  difference  between  Right  and  Wrong ;  or  else 
that  man  has  any  power  of  free  will  to  choose  be- 
tween them.  Some  men  have  denied  each ;  but  it 
appears  to  me  that  both  are  facts  of  consciousness. 
I  feel  conscious  of  a  difference  and  antagonism  be- 
tween Right  and  Wrong;  that  is  an  ultimate 
fact  of  consciousness.  The  greater  part  of  mankind 
feel  the  same  thing,  and  have  words  to  express  that 
fact.  I  feel  conscious  of  freedom,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent ;  that  also  is  an  ultimate  fact  of  consciousness. 
The  greater  part  of  mankind  feel  the  same  thing. 


THE  ECONOMY  OF  PAIN.  373 

In  a  matter  of  this  sort  my  own  consciousness  is  of 
the  utmost  value ;  the  opinion  of  the  human  race 
has  much  weight,  for  this  is  one  of  the  cases  in 
which  mankind  is  a  good  judge. 


Now,  much  of  the  Pain  and  Misery  in  the  world 
of  man  comes  from  a  violation  of  the  moral  laws  of 
Nature,  from  Error  and  Sin.  Can  this  evil  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  Providence  of  the  Infinite  God ;  or 
is  it  an  Absolute  Evil  ?  Let  us  first  look  at  Error, 
then  at  Sin,  at  each  with  its  consequences. 

In  treating  of  the  misery  which  comes  therefrom, 
I  will  speak  of  it  first,  on  a  large  scale  —  in  its  Politi- 
cal Form,  of  the  Errors  men  make  in  their  Civil 
Government. 

The  natural  moral  law,  in  its  political  operation,, 
requires  that  in  the  State  there  shall  be  complete  and 
perfect  National  Unity  of  Action,  —  the  nation  being 
as  complete  a  whole  as  a  man's  body,  —  that  is  ne- 
cessary for  all,  that  there  may  be  a  complete  Whole  ;. 
and  a  complete  and  perfect  Individual  Variety  of 
Action  —  each  man  doing  just  what  he  is  fittest  to  do. 
and  can  do  best,  —  that  is  necessary  for  each  man^. 
that  he  may  be  a  complete  person,  with  free  spiritual 
individuality,  as  free  and  independent  in  the  State^ 
as  my  hand  and  feet  are  in  the  body,  and  as  much 
in  his  proper  place  and  about  his  proper  functioDo. 
32 


374  PROVIDENCE. 

By  this  means  there  will  be  a  combination  of  efforts, 
but  a  distribution  of  functions ;  national  unity  of  end 
and  design  with  personal  diversity  of  means  thereto. 
The  centripetal  power,  the  Government,  and  the 
centrifugal  power,  the  Individual,  will  be  combined 
into  that  same  cosmic  harmony  "which  doth  pre- 
serve the  stars  from  wrong." 

This  is  the  ethic  ideal  of  a  State  —  the  political 
tool  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  mankind.  Nothing 
short  of  that  with  its  industrial  and  economical  con- 
trivances, will  allow  the  individual  all  his  natural  and 
unalienable  rights,  and  enable  him  to  have  the  nor- 
mal use,  development,  and  enjoyment  of  every  limb  of 
his  body  and  every  faculty  of  his  spirit.  It  is  the 
political  condition  of  complete  human  welfare.  But 
there  is  not  a  nation  in  the  world  which  has  attained 
it  yet.  It  is  the  ethic  ideal  of  a  State  which  the 
foremost  men  of  the  world  are  striving  to  set  up. 
It  can  only  be  reached  by  the  gradual  development 
of  human  nature,  which  can  take  place  only  through 
progression  by  experiment.  Some  of  the  experi- 
ments will  fail,  through  Mistakes  —  a  violation  of 
the  rule  of  expediency ;  through  Errors  —  a  violation 
of  the  rule  of  right :  will  fail  in  consequence  of  man's 
intellectual  or  moral  weakness.  If  the  failure  is  per- 
sisted in  misery  follows,  and  at  length  destruction ; 
the  pain  warns  us  of  the  blunder. 

Now  I  have  not  head  enough  to  show  in  all  cases 
how  this  suffering  proves  remedial,  and  to  demon- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  375 

strate  the  perfect  Providence  of  God  in  the  history 
of  man.  For,  to  do  that  it  would  be  necessary  to 
have  an  amount  of  knowledge,  both  of  human  nature 
and  of  human  history,  which  no  man  possesses  as 
yet ;  which  perhaps  it  is  not  possible  for  mortal  man 
ever  to  possess.  But  I  can  see  the  beneficent  effect 
and  tendency  of  this  in  so  many  cases,  that  the  gen- 
eral analogy  is  clearly  made  out,  even  without  recur- 
ring to  the  idea  of  God  as  Infinite  to  "  vindicate  the 
ways  of  God  to  man."  Yet  without  that  Idea  I 
confess  I  should  feel  little  general  confidence  in  such 
a  vindication. 

Look  at  some  of  the  examples  of  this  kind  of 
suffering.  Here  are  nations  which  eminently  lack 
National  Unity  of  Action.  That  is  the  case  with 
all  the  governments  in  Spanish  America.  The  His- 
pano- Americans  have  not  yet  made  a  national  har- 
ness which  will  hold  all  the  people.  Their  political 
experiments  have  not  succeeded  very  well.  Their 
civil  instrument  is  a  poor  tool,  which  works  rather 
badly  and  hurts  the  nation's  hand.  As  a  conse- 
quence there  follows  a  great  deal  of  suffering; 
the  nations,  each  taken  as  a  whole,  are  poor  and 
weak ;  the  individuals,  taken  separately,  are  also 
poor,  ill-educated,  oppressed  or  oppressing,  and  not 
enjoying  high  modes  of  happiness.  Their  suffering 
is  the  consequence  of  their  economical  Mistakes  and 
moral  Errors. 

But  how  shall  they  ever  get  a  better  form  of  gov- 


376  PROVIDENCE. 

•ernment?  Only  by  making  the  trial.  And  if  they 
suffered  no  pain  from  the  present  failure  they  would 
make  no  effort  for  future  success.  The  pain  urges 
them  continually  to  alter  and  mend.  They  cannot 
be  rich,  happy,  well-educated,  nor  even  tranquil,  un- 
til they  have  this  national  Unity  of  Action.  Hence 
they  are  in  a  state  of  continual  disturbance  and  fer- 
mentation. Mexico  alone  has  had  twenty-seven 
Tevolutions  in  less  than  thirty  years.  Would  it  be  a 
good  thing  if  God  were  by  miracle  to  remove  this 
power  to  suffer  from  these  causes  ?  Shall  He  miracu- 
lously give  them  a  constitution  and  frame  of  gov- 
ernment ;  and  miraculously  dispose  all  men  to  accept 
it  ?  That  would  be  to  treat  these  Creoles  like  mules 
•and  oxen,  not  like  men.  A  woman  wishes  to  walk 
cool  in  the  summer's  heat ;  shall  God  m^iraculously 
give  her  the  great  shadow  of  a  peculiar  cloud,  or 
leave  her  to  make  her  own  umbrella  and  walk  rejoic- 
ing in  its  shade  ? 

Here  are  other  nations  which  as  eminently  lack 
Individual  Variety  of  Action — Spain,  Italy,  Aus- 
tria, Turkey,  Russia,  not  to  mention  others.  A 
great  amount  of  force  must  be  misdirected  by  the 
nation,  as  a  whole,  to  keep  the  individuals  in  their 
-unnatural  condition :  as  a  consequence  there  is  a  di- 
minution of  the  productive  power  of  the  people  as  a 
whole  —  soldiers  and  policemen  are  so  numerous, 
mechanics,  merchants,  farmers  so  rare,  —  and  accord- 
ingly the  nations  are  poor,  and  the  government  un- 


THE   ECONOMY   OP   PAIN.  377 

stable  and  corrupt.  Individual  men  suffer  from  the 
unnatural  restriction.  This  two-fold  misery  is  the 
unavoidable  consequence  of  their  political  Error,  it 
notifies  men  of  the  failure  of  their  experiment.  But 
the  mischief  can  only  be  got  rid  of  by  making  new 
political  experiments.  The  national  tool  works  badly, 
it  hurts  the  hands  of  the  people ;  they  must  take  it 
again  to  the  forge,  heat  and  warm  it  over  anew  in 
some  other  revolution  and  make  a  political  instru- 
ment better  suited  to  the  work  they  wish  to  accom- 
plish. Shall  God  alter  the  nature  of  man  to  accom- 
modate the  Spaniard,  the  Neapolitan  and  the  Turk, 
making  human  welfare  to  come  from  tyranny  and 
ignorant  exploitation  of  the  people  as  well  as  from  a 
wise  and  just  frame  of  government?  Shall  He 
miraculously  prevent  the  anxiety  of  a  tyrant,  or  the 
misery  of  his  victim  ?  A  woodman's  axe  is  dull ; 
shall  God  alter  the  constitution  of  the  trees,  and  in- 
crease the  toughness  of  the  woodman's  arms ;  or 
shall  He  leave  him  to  sharpen  his  axe,  and  then  hew 
down  the  trees  with  more  comfort  ? 

Look  at  the  human  race  as  one  person :  from  the 
beginning  till  now  man  has  been  devising  an  instru- 
ment to  produce  welfare.  Every  experiment  has 
been  a  partial  success,  each  also  a  partial  failure.  So 
far  as  the  attempt  succeeded  the  result  has  been  de- 
lightful ;  so  far  as  it  failed,  painful.  Suffering  fol- 
lows Error;  man  abandons  the  Error,  abolishes  the 
mischief,  tries  again,  making  out  better  next  time. 
32* 


378  PROVIDENCE. 

The  pain  has  only  been  adequate  to  sharpen  his  wits, 
like  hunger  and  thirst  to  make  him  work  in  other 
forms.  Thus  man  gets  his  political  education  and 
political  enjoyment.  He  tries  despotism  —  that  tool 
does  not  please  him  ;  then  a  monarchy,  then  an  aris- 
tocracy, then  a  republic,  and  improves  continually  in 
his  constitutions  as  in  his  agricultural  and  military 
tools.  Man  in  his  political  development  hitherto 
has  not  suffered  proportionately  more  than  a  little  girl 
under  ordinary  circumstances,  in  growing  up  to  wo- 
manhood. But  no  one  complains  and  thinks  it  an 
Absolute  Evil  that  the  wind  sometimes  blows  off  the 
hat  of  the  little  maiden ;  that  she  sometimes  falls 
down  and  soils  her  frock  ;  that  her  hoop  runs  off  the 
sidewalk;  or  that  she  fails  to  get  the  right  conjunc- 
tion in  her  French  exercise  and  cries  with  chagrin 
at  the  recitations.  Mankind,  like  little  Miss,  suffers 
from  corresponding  evils,  has  the  diseases  of  child- 
liood,  in  a  political  form.  Anarchy,  despotism, 
xevolutions,  —  these  are  the  measles  and  whooping- 
cough  of  the  human  race,  one  day  to  be  outgrown. 
The  present  political  condition  of  mankind  as  much 
iDclongs  to  the  present  age  of  mankind  and  comes  as 
naturally  in  the  process  of  human  development,  I 
take  it,  as  the  greenness  of  apples  belongs  to  the 
month  of  June,  and  the  immaturity  of  boyhood  to 
early  years.  Shall  w^e  complain  that  the  boy  is  not 
born  a  man  grown ;  that  the  apple  is  not  mature  in 
June  instead  of  October  ? 


THE  ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  379 

Political  Oppression  in  its  many  forms  is  one  of 
the  worst  evils  which  now  afflict  the  enlightened 
nations.  But  it  comes  unavoidably  from  the  nature 
of  man  —  finite  and  progressive  in  his  social  as 
well  as  his  individual  condition.  For  human  devel- 
opment it  is  necessary  that  men  should  gather  in 
large  masses,  in  nations;  to  accomplish  that  politi- 
cal experiments  are  necessary ;  the  first  attempt  of  a 
finite  and  free  creature  is  not  likely  to  succeed  and 
produce  the  effect  which  is  ultimately  desirable ; 
the  experiment  may  fail^  and  its  failure  must  bring 
pain.  Besides,  man  is  politically  progressive,  and 
outgrows  his  institutions  as  the  individual  his  baby- 
clothes.  Those  which  pleased  him  once  become  a 
source  of  pain,  no  longer  suiting  the  altered  condi- 
tion of  the  race.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  pain  is  a 
warning. 

Sometimes  we  can  see  the  particular  good  results 
brought  about  by  some  special  evil.  The  Boston 
Port-Bill,  the  Stamp  Act,  with  the  other  oppressive 
legislations  of  England,  hastened  the  separation  of 
the  American  child  from  her  mother  —  to  the  lasting 
gain  of  both  and  of  the  human  race.  A  thinking 
man  sees  manifold  examples  of  this  sort  in  all  the 
history  of  mankind,  God 


From  seeming  evil  still  educing  good, 
And  better  thence  again,  and  better  still 
In  infinite  Progression." 


380  PROVIDENCE. 

Suppose  man  had  been  made  incapable  of  suffer- 
ing from  political  Errors,  when  they  came  in  the 
experiments  of  the  race.  The  Hebrews  would  have 
been  content  under  the  taskmasters  of  Egypt,  and 
so  have  continued  slaves  until  they  were  degraded 
beyond  possibility  of  elevation  on  earth :  till  they 
perished  outright.  If  the  Puritan  had  not  smarted 
from  the  oppression  he  suffered,  he  would  have  borne 
it  patiently  till  now ;  and  have  become  what  despots 
love  —  a  passive  tool  of  tyranny ;  the  world  would 
have  lost  the  brave  development  of  manhood  which 
has  come  from  that  hardy  stock.  The  horse  and  the 
ass  are  the  servants  of  man  ;  they  do  not  suffer  from 
that  state  of  subordination  ;  they  take  it 

"  With  a  patient  shrug,  — 
For  sufferance  is  the  badge  of  all  the  tribe,"  — 

and  are  content.  Treat  them  kindly,  give  them 
enough  to  eat,  do  not  overwork  them,  and  you  have 
done  the  beast  no  wrong.  The  dog  is  the  only  ani- 
mal perhaps,  who  voluntarily  puts  himself  under  the 
protection  of  man.  He  does  not  suffer  by  human 
subordination ;  it  does  not  necessarily  debase  him, 
or  prevent  his  development  and  his  canine  welfare. 
If  his  pliant  nature  yields  to  man's  plastic  hand,  and 
takes  new  forms,  his  happiness  has  also  new  forms. 
"  What  a  generosity  and  courage  he  will  put  on 
when  he  finds  himself  maintained  by  a  man,  who  is 
to  him  instead  of  a  God,  or  Melior  Natural''     But 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  381 

man  is  debased  by  such  subordination ;  and  if  he 
did  not  suffer  and  smart  when  another's  will  was 
imposed  on  him  —  the  degradation  would  be  ruin 
before  he  was  aware  of  the  peril.  If  he  did  not 
smart  with  pain  under  analogous  thraldom,  when 
treated  well,  well  fed,  well  clad  and  not  overworked, 
the  nations  had  been  slaves  this  day  to  a  few  men 
with  minds  full  of  mastery. 

The  ruder  a  nation  is,  the  less  developed  in  the 
higher  faculties,  the  more  external  force  is  necessary 
to  keep  individuals  together  and  in  order.  But  the 
less  is  such  force  debasing  or  painful  to  the  sufferer. 
It  requires  more  external  force  to  establish  na- 
tional Unity  of  Action  in  Russia  than  in  America; 
the  constraint  which  a  Russian  needs  and  bears 
without  pain,  would  be  intolerable  to  a  New  Eng- 
lander,  or  a  Briton. 

Much  misery  appears  in  a  Social  Form,  the  con- 
sequence of  Errors  made  in  organizing  men  into 
communities.  The  ethic  ideal  of  society  is  an 
organization  of  men  and  women  so  skilfully  con- 
structed that  each  man  shall  do  the  normal  work 
which  he  can  do  best,  with  the  most  advantage  to 
himself  and  to  all  his  fellows ;  that  he  shall  develop 
harmoniously  all  his  faculties  with  entire  natural 
freedom,  and  at  the  same  time  have  the  advantage 
of  the  aid  and  companionship  of  other  men,  all 
likewise  doing  their  best  thing.     Here  there  will  be 


382  PROVIDEXCE. 

a  perfect  Social  Unity  of  Action  and  at  the  same 
time  perfect  Individual  Variety  of  Action  —  normal 
personal  freedom.  On  the  one  hand,  there  will 
appear  the  solidarity  of  mankind,  at  least  of  the 
special  community ;  on  the  other,  the  sacredness  of 
the  Individual.  Each  man  will  be  deemed  a  Frac- 
tion of  society  and  so  a  factor  in  its  product,  but 
also  an  Integer  ;  and  both  the  functions,  that  of  the 
fraction  and  the  integer  will  be  sacredly  respected. 
In  this  case  the  social  usages,  and  the  public  opinion 
they  rest  on,  will  correspond  exactly  with  the  facul- 
ties  of  man  in  their  actual  state  of  development; 
and  with  the  natural  moral  laws  of  God.  There 
will  be  the  same  blending  of  the  centripetal  power 
of  the  whole  and  the  centrifugal  power  of  the  indi- 
vidual into  that  cosmic  harmony  which  I  spoke  of 
before,  whereby  "  the  most  ancient  Heavens  are 
fresh  and  strong."  Then  the  various  persons  of  the 
community  will  work  together  with  as  little  friction 
as  the  Planets  in  their  course ;  with  as  little  waste 
as  the  forces  which  form  a  rose  or  a  lily.  The  laws, 
customs  and  habits  of  society  will  be  just  and 
natural.  There  will  be  no  crime,  —  no  man  sacri- 
ficed to  another  man,  or  to  the  mass  of  men.  There 
will  be  no  pauperism  because  no  laziness,  no  waste, 
and  no  rapacity :  a  diversity  of  functions,  but  con- 
centric unity  of  purpose  and  a  combination  of  efforts 
to  achieve  it.  Every  man  will  be  in  perfect  harmony 
with   himself,   with  his  fellow  men  and  with  Na- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   TAIN.  883 

ture,  —  ill  perfect  circumstances.  So  he  will  be  in 
perfect  health  both  of  body  and  spirit.  Labor  will 
be  as  delightful  to  men  as  to  emmets,  beavers  and 
robins  building  their  nests :  birth,  life,  death,  all  will 
be  natural,  all  beautiful.  Such  is  the  ethic  ideal  of 
a  community.  Nothing  less  will  correspond  to  the 
nature  of  man  and  the  normal  mode  of  action  of  the 
human  powers ;  nothing  less  to  the  social  moral  law 
of  God. 

But  there  is  no  such  community  in  the  world ; 
there  never  has  been.  Behold  what  pain  and  misery 
come  of  our  human  attempts  to  organize  men  into 
communities !  A  community  is  at  present  a  jumble 
of  human  forces ;  not  a  concord,  but  a  discord. 
How  many  men  are  out  of  their  natural  sphere !  This 
man  was  born  a  hunter,  but  he  sits  uneasily  on  a 
shoemaker's  bench  all  his  life,  dyspeptic  and  ill  tem- 
pered. How  many  an  idle  profligate  is  cursed  by 
the  money  which  his  ancestors  gathered  together,  his 
riches  hindering  his  manly  development  I  How 
many  are  covetous  and  grasping!  Think  of  the 
want  and  the  crime ;  think  of  the  licentiousness 
and  intemperance ;  of  the  sickness  which  cuts  off' 
such  hosts  of  men  in  childhood,  while  only  here  and 
there  one  dies  a  natural  death.  Consider  all  the 
ghastly  forms  of  irregular  action  which  you  find  in  a 
great  city,  in  Boston,  New  York,  London.  Think  of 
the  indispensable  attendants  of  a  great  town  —  hospi- 


384  PEOYIDENCE. 

tals,  asylums  for  the  crazy  and  the  old,  for  orphan 
babes,  almshouses,  jails  of  manifold  denominations  — 
the  moral  sewerage  of  the  town,  —  of  the  police, 
swarming  like  buzzards  in  the  streets  to  remove  the 
refuse  of  mankind.  The  constable  never  sleeps.  The 
jail-van  is  always  in  motion.  Law  and  crime  jostle 
each  other  in  every  street.  Gluttony  and  beggary 
meet  at  every  corner.  St.  James  and  St.  Giles 
glower  at  each  other  in  Christian  London.  The 
angel  of  mercy  follows  the  footsteps  of  the  prosti- 
tutes, and  watches  over  the  bedside  of  her  brother 
who  made  them  such.  What  pain  and  misery  in 
modern  society !  Boston  is  one  of  the  most  favora- 
ble specimens  of  a  modern  town,  almost  equally 
charitable  and  rich,  but  even  here  a  good  man  can 
hardly  walk  the  public  streets  and  then  repeat  his 
private  prayers  without  a  shudder,  —  his  heart  mak- 
ing great  leaps  as  he  remembers  the  ignorance  and 
misery  about  him. 

This  suffering  is  an  "  abomination  to  the  Lord," 
as  much  as  the  older  heathen  form  of  making  chil- 
dren "  pass  through  the  fire  unto  Moloch ; "  it  is 
against  the  ideal  of  human  nature.  But  if  you  look 
a  moment  you  see  the  cause  of  the  misery  and  its 
function.  Man  is  finite,  social,  gifted  with  partial 
freedom,  progressive  also.  Sociality  on  a  large  scale 
is  indispensable  to  his  development ;  great  cities  are 
as  necessary  for  mankind  as  a  garment  for  a  boy. 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   TAIN.  385 

They  have  ever  been  the  fire-places  of  human  educa- 
tion—  intellectual,  moral  and  religious  development. 
Man's  advance  in  general  development  must  take 
place  by  the  aid,  in  part,  of  large  combinations  of 
men.  To  form  them,  nay,  to  group  a  hundred  men 
together,  he  must  make  experiments.  They  may 
fail  through  Errors  or  Mistakes.  All  human  advance, 
social  or  individual,  is  progression  by  experiment. 
If  men  do  not  suffer  from  the  failure  they  will  not 
know  it  is  a  failure ;  will  continue  it  and  perish. 

Suppose  men  made  a  social  experiment  and  it 
failed  in  consequence  of  the  intellectual  or  moral 
deficiency  of  the  projectors,  because  it  did  not  fulfil 
the  economical,  or  moral  conditions  of  social  well 
being ;  suppose  we  did  not  suffer  pain  from  the  con- 
sequences of  this  Mistake  and  Error,  and  conse- 
quently continued  in  it  and  never  rectified  what  was 
amiss  in  our  experiment;  would  that  be  a  better 
scheme  than  the  present  one  ?  It  is  as  idle  to  grum- 
ble at  Providence  because  men  suffer  from  social 
Mistakes  and  Errors,  as  to  find  fault  with  God  be- 
cause a  mill  does  not  grind  corn  when  its  wheels  are 
placed  on  the  wa^ong  side  of  the  dam.  I  w^ish  to 
write,  but  have  put  no  ink  in  my  pen.  Shall  God 
fill  it  for  me  miraculously ;  or  enable  me  to  write 
with  a  dry  quill  ?  He  gave  me  the  head  and  hand 
to  furnish  ink  withal ;  mankind  the  head  and  hand  to 
organize  communities  aright.  My  disappointment 
and  the  world's  misery  notify  us  to  take  heed. 
33 


386  PROVIDENCE. 

When  the  social  machine  is  so  constructed  that  it 
provides  shelter,  food,  raiment,  education  deficient  in 
quality  or  in  quantity,  or  distributes  these  needful 
things  in  an  unnatural  and  therefore  unsatisfactory 
manner,  is  it  not  a  wise  and  benevolent  contrivance 
that  pain  should  warn  us  of  the  Mistake  and  Error  ? 
If  the  bodies  of  the  neglected  poor  did  not  shiver 
with  cold  and  damp  and  wet ;  if  they  did  not  ache 
with  hunger,  with  fear,  and  the  troop  of  ghastly 
diseases  which  invade  the  rearward  ranks  of  men  in 
all  our  human  march ;  if  ennui  and  the  multiform 
diseases  of  body  and  spirit  did  not  attack  and 
disturb  the  class  of  men  whose  natural  social  bur- 
dens are  borne  by  others ;  if  crime  did  not  rise  up 
and  cry  with  its  inarticulate  mowings  against  the 
social  waste  and  ^^^.•ong ;  if  the  exploitered  servant 
did  not  take  his  revenge  by  unfaithfulness ;  if  the 
neglected,  the  poor,  the  outcast  did  not  steal  and 
rob,  burn  houses  and  murder  men ;  if  the  slave  did 
not  run  away,  did  not  waste  his  employers'  goods 
and  slay  their  children ;  if  the  spoiled  child  did  not 
turn  out  a  profligate,  and  gnaw  the  bosom  which 
bore  him,  —  men  would  persevere  in  their  social  folly 
and  perish.  Animals  are  unconsciously  taught  by 
instinct  —  gregarious  not  social.  Their  organization 
into  packs  and  flocks  and  herds  is  made  ready  for 
them  like  the  pattern  of  their  nests,  and  the  garment 
which  grows  on  their  shoulders.  Man  is  consciously 
teachable,  self-instructive  ;  he  learns  by  experiment ; 


THE  ECONOMY   OF  PAIX.  387 

not  merely  gregarious  but  social,  he  is  to  construct 
his  own  social  organization,  as  his  garments  and  his 
house.  There  is  always  power  enough  —  intellec- 
tual and  moral  —  in  each  generation  of  men  to 
construct  the  social  or  political  organizations  which 
that  generation  needs,  which  correspond  to  its  state 
of  development  at  that  time.  This  is  ideally 
demonstrable  —  for  it  follows  by  unavoidable  deduc- 
tion from  the  infinite  perfection  of  God  ;  and  his- 
torically demonstrable  from  all  the  past  ages  of 
human  progress  and  the  present  condition  of  men. 
But  as  men  have  a  partial  freedom,  they  may  use  or 
neglect  this  power  of  social  organization.  If  they 
neglect  the  means  which  God  has  provided  as  ade- 
quate for  his  purpose  and  their  social  welfare,  is  it 
not  benevolent  in  Him  to  make  things  so  that  pain 
shall  ring  an  alarm  bell,  as  it  were,  and  warn  us  of 
the  Error  ?  If  I  will  not  put  my  cloak  about  me 
when  the  north  air  bites,  shall  God  abolish  winter  to 
save  me  the  trouble  of  thought  ?  If  I  have  sense 
enough,  and  yet  will  eat  green  apples  and  not  ripe 
ones,  is  it  not  w^ell  that  I  suffer  ? 

Suppose  that  men  not  only  suffered  no  pain  in 
consequence  of  their  social  folly  in  violating  the 
natural  law  of  the  universe,  but  they  did  not 
die  in  consequence  of  the  error.  Then  the  first 
experiment  would  be  the  last ;  there  would  be  an 
end  of  progress.  We  should  advance  no  more  than 
the  beavers,   or  the   bees.     So  there  would  be   no 


388 


PROVIDENCE. 


eontinned  growth  of  the  faculties  of  mankind,  no 
consequent  increase  of  happiness,  no  qualitative 
advance  in  mode,  no  quantitative  in  degree.  Man 
would  have  stopped  long  ago  in  some  low  stage  of 
development ;  perhaps  never  have  advanced  beyond 
the  culture  of  the  men  who  have  grown  up  amongst 
wolves  in  Hindostan,  —  a  barking,  a  ferocious  and 
a  stupid  pack. 

I  know  how  terrible  this  suffering  is,  how  much  in 
quantity,  of  a  quality  how  sad;  how  many  innocent 
men  suffer  from  the  average  folly  of  mankind,  through 
no  Mistake  or  Error  of  their  own.  But  take  the 
whole  world  together  this  pain  is  not  in  excess,  and 
its  function  is  plainly  benevolent.  Before  us  marches 
the  attractive  Idea  of  better  things,  a  pillar  of  fire 
continually  advancing  towards  the  promised  land 
which  flows  with  milk  and  honey;  behind  us  the 
Egyptian  host  of  ignorance,  and  fear,  and  tyranny, 
and  want,  drive  us  on.  Both  are  ministers  of  God's 
Providence. 

See  what  evil  comes  in  the  Domestic  Form. 
The  ethic  ideal  of  a  family  demands  the  marriage  of 
loving  men  and  women  to  their  loving  mates,  two 
•equivalent  and  free  persons  uniting  in  connubial 
love,  manhood  and  womanhood  combining  into  hu- 
manity. But  are  such  marriages  common  ?  Is 
the  wife  thought  the  equal,  the  equivalent  of  the 
husband;  is  the  family  always  based  on   love,  con- 


THE   ECOl^OMY   OF   PAIX.  389 

nubial,  parental,  filial,  friendly  love  ?  The  masculine 
element  oppresses  and  enslaves  the  feminine.  Man 
exploiters  woman  all  the  world  over.  How  many- 
live  unmarried  —  against  their  nature,  against  their 
conscious  will.  Polygamy  prevails  "  over  three 
quarters  of  the  groaning  globe."  In  Christendom 
the  marria2:e  of  one  to  one  is  the  ecclesiastic  and 
legal  ideal,  the  marriage-type.  Is  it  also  the  fact  ? 
How  much  is  there  of  involuntary  singleness  — pain- 
ful and  against  Nature ;  how  much  vice  of  many 
forms,  odious  to  the  thought;  what  unhappiness 
from  ill-assorted  wedlock  begun  in  haste,  repented  of 
at  leisure,  but  made  permanent  by  statute  and  pub- 
lic opinion  ?  What  a  world  of  misery  comes  from 
the  Mistakes  and  Errors  men  have  made  in  the 
domestic  organization  of  mankind  and  womankind ! 
Here  the  same  reasoning  applies  —  the  proximate 
cause  of  the  misery  is  the  Mistake ;  the  function 
thereof  is  to  warn  men  and  stir  them  to  better  experi- 
ments. All  this  matter  of  love  might  have  been 
settled  by  laws  that  could  not  be  broke,  and  like 
oaksj  with  no  chance  of  mistake^  men  might 

''languidly  adjust 
Their  vapid,  vegetable  loves  with  anthers  and  with  dust," 

or  like  the  free  birds  of  heaven  be  mated  by  instinct, 
Does  any  one  think  that  would  be  an  improve- 
ment ?  Attracted  by  the  Ideal  of  a  perfect  family, 
driven  by  pain  from  the  actual,  mankind  moves  on, 
33* 


390  PROVIDENCE. 

each  generation  of  Jacobs  and  Rachels  improving 
over  the  family  of  their  predecessors,  and  with  a 
continual  increase  of  domestic  bliss.  The  pain 
which  comes  from  married  and  unmarried  Error  is 
not  excessive  for  its  work.  Look  the  world  over, 
disguising  nothing,  and  you  see  how  nicely  this 
misery  is  fitted  for  its  function.  One  day  the  misery 
will  end.  Only  the  boy  cries  over  his  multiplica- 
tion table. 

See  the  evil  which  comes  of  Mistakes  and  Errors 
in  Religion  —  from  Errors  about  Piety  its  sentimental 
part,  about  Theology  its  theoretical  part,  and  Moral- 
ity its  practical  part.  Absolute  Religion  is  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Infinite  God  by  the  normal  use,  develop- 
ment and  enjoyment  of  every  limb  of  the  body, 
every  faculty  of  the  spirit,  every  power  which  we 
possess  over  matter  or  man.  This  is  a  service  which 
is  "  perfect  freedom."  This  is  the  Ideal  of  religion  ; 
nothing  short  of  this  answers  to  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man  and  the  natural  law  of  God.  Every  thing 
short  of  this  is  an  Error,  or  a  Mistake. 

But  no  considerable  body  of  men  has  yet  attained 
this  Form  of  Religion.  It  is  not  consciously  made 
the  ideal  of  any  sect  of  religionists  in  the  world. 
How  much  suffering  arises  from  the  common  notions 
(of  religion  in  the  most  enlightened  nations  !  I  have 
spoken  of  this  so  often  in  previous  sermons  that  it  is 
:needles3  to  say  much  now.     But  what  fear  among 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   PAIX.  391 

"  Believers  "  of  the  popular  theology,  what  littleness, 
what  absurd  singleness  of  the  soul  which  longs  for 
union  with  God ;  what  meanness  and  cowardice  is 
found  in  men  who  try  to  wring  and  twist  themselves 
into  the  spiritual  contortions  demanded  by  Hebrew, 
Mahometan,  or  Christian  Priests  I  "What  spiritual 
hunger  is  there  of  Unbelievers  I  The  ecclesiastical 
bodies  founded  on  the  popular  Mistakes  and  Errors 
—  how  impotent  they  are  to  lead  the  nation  to  any 
great  good  work.  What  manifold  evils  come  of  this 
cause!  Look  at  the  condition  of  the  Christian 
world:  its  general  Theology  scornfully  rejected  by 
scientific  men  ;  the  Roman  church  dead ;  the  Greek 
church  for  many  centuries  without  life ;  the  Protes- 
tant churches  of  Europe  divided,  feeble,  ruled  like 
armies  by  kings ;  and  in  many  places  what  is 
officially  called  "  Religion,"  exacted  of  the  people  by 
the  tax-gatherer  and  the  constable ;  the  churches  of 
America  divided,  wrangling,  and  all  unable  to  direct 
in  natural  ways  the  immense  energies  of  this  great 
Commonwealth ;  —  nay,  not  daring  to  oppose  the 
colossal  Errors  and  Sins  of  the  nation,  or  even  to 
rebuke  the  political  atheism  which  denies  the  Higher 
Law  of  God!  See  what  imbecility  comes  from  a 
theology  which  calls  on  its  followers  to  renounce 
reason  ;  for  the  sake  of  being  spiritual,  to  give  up 
the  exercise  of  their  spirit.  What  pain  comes 
from  belief  in  eternal  punishment,  the  priest  torment- 
ing men   before  their  time !      W^hat  misery  comes 


892  PROVIDENCE. 

from  fearing  a  dreadful  God !  Look  at  the  oppres- 
sion still  practised  in  the  name  of  religion  —  in  Italy 
men  shut  in  a  Christian  jail  for  reading  the  Chris- 
tian Bible ;  in  almost  every  Christian  state  laws  for- 
bidding freedom  of  speech  on  matters  relating  to 
Christianity,  the  gallows  reaching  its  arm  over  the 
pulpit.  See  how  many  men  in  America  are  driven 
to  infidelity,  to  denial  of  all  conscious  religion,  by 
the  absurdities  taught  in  its  name  ;  how  many  are 
annually  forced  to  hospitals  for  lunatics,  incurably 
crazed  by  what  is  called  religion.  Acquisitiveness 
is  doubtless  the  disease  of  America  just  now;  but 
the  lust  of  money  is  less  powerful  than  the  popular 
theology  in  bringing  men  to  public  Bedlam. 

The  theological  mistake  is  incidental  to  human 
nature,  —  finite,  free,  progressive;  the  misery  is  an 
unavoidable  result  of  the  mistake,  and  has  a  benevo- 
lent function  under  the  Providence  of  God.  As 
perfect  Cause  He  foreknew  the  history  of  mankind, 
all  our  Mistakes  in  religious  matters,  and  wisely  put 
pain  as  an  unavoidable  consequence  of  avoidable 
Mistakes  and  Errors.  If  the  mass  of  men  in  North- 
ern Europe  had  not  suffered  from  the  false  theology, 
false  morality,  false  piety  and  manifold  oppression 
in  the  name  of  God  imposed  on  them  by  the  Roman 
church,  the  world  had  been  under  Leos  and  Juliuses 
and  Adrians  to  this  day.  Had  not  the  unsatisfac- 
tory schemes  of  the  Roman,  Grecian,  Hebrew 
theologies  given  pain  to  mankind,  Christianity  would 


THE   ECONOMY    OF   TAIN.  393 

have  perished  with  Jesus  ;  nay,  if  men  had  not 
siiliered  from  the  mistakes  of  Egyptian  priests,  Mo- 
ses would  never  have  led  Israel  out  of  the  iron  house 
of  bondage  and  the  gross  darkness  wliieh  covered 
the  people.  The  oxen  suffer  not  from  the  letters 
which  their  master  burns  upon  their  horns;  the 
Roman  ass  is  not  pained  by  the  image  of  St.  An- 
thony which  his  superstitious  master  puts  on  him 
with  a  priestly  blessing ;  if  men  suffered  no  more 
from  false  ideas  of  religion,  we  should  be  as  oxen 
and  asses,  driven  by  other  masters,  and  that  to 
our  ruin. 

In  religion  as  elsewhere,  God  has  provided  for  a 
continual  progress ;  but  it  is  all  progression  by  ex- 
periment; by  many  experiments  which  fail  w^e  reach 
the  one  that  succeeds.  How  long  it  took  mankind 
to  invent  a  machine  driven  by  a  river,  or  a  flame  of 
fire,  that  could  spin  and  weave  cotton  !  And  does  it 
appear  strange  that  man  should  err  long  and  wide 
before  he  attains  a  perfect  scheme  of  religion? 
Fetichism  was  once  a  triumph,  and  satisfied  the 
aspirations  of  devout  mankind ;  next  man  outgrew 
it,  but  cautious  and  conservative  still  sought  to  wear 
the  strait,  scant  girdle  which  devoured  his  loins  ;  at 
length  urged  by  intolerable  pain,  attracted  by  a  bet- 
ter idea,  he  threw  it  away.  Polytheism,  Hebra- 
ism, Classic  Deism,  Romanism,  have  the  same 
history,  the  same  fate  —  once  prayed  for,  then  out- 
grown  and    next   prayed    against   and    cast  away. 


394  PROVIDEXCE. 

But  the  good  of  each  is  continually  preserved.  The 
Mosaic  religion  was  an  advance  over  the  popular 
service  of  God  in  Egypt  four  thousand  years  ago ; 
the  Jewish  form  of  Christianity  rose  far  above 
Moses;  the  Pauline  form  transcended  that ;  Roman- 
ism is  a  compromise  between  the  Christianity  of  Paul, 
the  Mosaism  of  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Polytheism 
of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The  human  race  went 
forward  as  they  became  Catholic  Christians.  Luther 
took  a  step  in  advance  of  Rome ;  Zuingle,  Calvin, 
his  fellow  reformers,  great  men  all  of  them,  helped 
us  still  further  on.  But,  pained  by  their  imperfec- 
tions, cheered  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  soul  of 
man  which  still  tells  of  lands  of  promise  before  us, 
and  still  sends  fire-pillars  in  every  night  to  show  the 
way  over  sands  that  furnish  water,  and  through 
rivers  that  dry  up  to  let  us  pass  —  the  race  still  jour- 
neys on  from  Thebes  to  Jerusalem,  from  that  to 
Rome,  thence  to  Wittenberg,  Basle,  Geneva,  West- 
minster;  and  there  is  no  end.  Every  step  in  religion 
is  an  experiment,  if  a  wrong  step  it  is  painful.  But 
the  pain  is  medical.  The  fires  of  Moloch  in  Syria; 
the  harsh  mutilations  in  the  name  of  Astarte,  Cybele, 
Jehovah ;  the  barbarities  of  imperial  pagan  tormen- 
tors ;  the'still  grosser  torments  which  Romano-Gothic 
Christians  in  Italy  and  Spain  heaped  on  their  brother 
men,  the  fiendish  cruelties  to  which  Switzerland, 
France,  the  Netherlands,  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
America  have  been  witness,  are  not  too  powerful  to 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  395 

warn  men  of  the  unspeakable  evils  which  follow 
from  Mistakes  and  Errors  in  this  matter  of  religion. 
The  present  sufferings  from  belief  and  unbelief, 
it  is  easy  to  learn  the  lesson  which  they  read. 
If  we  misuse  the  deepest  and  most  powerful  force 
in  man,  the  pain  which  comes  therefrom  must  needs 
be  great.  To  pluck  out  a  hair  brings  little  pain  ;  but 
to  rend  off  a  limb,  to  tear  out  an  eye  —  a  dreadful 
misery  forbids  that  sacrilege.  Did  not  pain  warn 
the  Christian  nations,  the  Protestant  and  the  Catho- 
lic, as  it  ever  has  warned  all  loiterers,  all  wanderers, 
we  should  stray  further  and  further  from  our  God,  or 
else  stop  in  our  onward  march  ;  and  in  either  case 
lose  the  progressive  joy  of  manly  development  of 
our  religious  powers. 

There  is  now  intellectual  and  moral  power  enough 
active  in  the  present  generation  to  correct  the  evils  of 
the  popular  theology  of  Christendom,  the  defects  of  its 
ecclesiastical  machinery,  and  so  to  remove  the  suffer- 
ing which  comes  from  that.  If  we  fail  to  apply 
these  powers  to  this  work,  it  is  surely  wise  in  the 
great  Father  to  have  so  made  the  world  that  pain 
shall  at  length  compel  us  to  put  off  the  shoe  which 
pinches,  and  not  suffer  the  foot  to  be  spoiled. 

This  fourfold  Error  in  the  formation  of  the  State, 
the  Community,  the  Family  and  the  Church  —  has 
brought  a  flood  of  misery  upon  the  world.  But  it 
has  forced  mankind  to  a  fourfold  improvement  — 


396  PROVIDEXCE. 

political,  social,  domestic,  religious ;  to  a  fourfold 
increase  of  human  delight  and  blessedness.  Every 
age  has  power  to  mend  its  machinery  and  to  devise 
better.  These  Mistakes  and  Errors  were  foreseen 
by  the  Infinite  God,  at  the  creation,  provided  for, 
and  the  checks  to  them  all  made  ready  before  hand. 
Even  here  there  is  nothing  imperfect,  but  the  motive, 
material,  purpose  and  means  continually  reveal  the 
infinite  perfections  of  God. 

You  see  how  a  child  makes  Mistakes  in  getting 
command  of  his  body ;  how  he  stumbles  in  learning 
to  walk  and  hurts  his  limbs  by  the  fall ;  but  his  wise 
mother  cheers  and  encourages  him.  How  he  hurts 
his  hands  and  feet  before  he  learns  the  qualities 
thereof,  and  their  normal  relation  to  the  things  they 
touch  !  What  experiments  he  makes  that  fail  before 
he  learns  the  economic  conditions  which  hedge  him 
in  I  See  how  mankind  toils  and  experiments  in  get- 
ting the  entire  command  of  any  of  our  present  in- 
struments, living  or  inanimate.  What  pain  comes 
of  each  Mistake!  The  ox  gores  his  master,  the 
horse  throws  him,  Acteon's  hounds  devour  their 
lord  —  it  is  more  than  fable ;  the  Pine-bender  is 
snatched  up  in  his  own  tree.  What  a  useful  thing 
is  fire ;  what  a  powerful  instrument  in  the  world's 
civilization  !  It  has  been  domesticated,  I  doubt  not, 
some  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  years.  But  even 
now  what  Mistakes  we  make  in  its  use  ;  what  evils 
it  brings !  not  a  venturesome  baby  in  the  best  ordered 


THE   ECOXOMY    OF   PAIN.  397 

family,  but  puts  his  fingers  in  the  flame  and  starts 
when  he  learns  the  sharp  distinction  between  the 
Me  and  the  Not-Me ;  not  a  little  village,  never  so 
dull,  but  it  loses  now  and  then  a  house,  or  barn,  by 
this  unruly  servant ;  not  a  city  but  has  its  conflagra- 
tion, its  police  and  engines  to  quell  the  element  and 
keep  the  fire  within  its  limits.  Condense  a  thousand 
million  men  to  one  great  consciousness ;  consider 
the  human  race  as  one  man  twenty  or  thirty  thou- 
sand years  old,  all  his  burnings,  do  not  make  a 
greater  proportionate  amount  of  suffering  than  what 
befals  our  venturesome  weanling  who  puts  his  diso- 
bedient fingers  in  the  candle's  flame.  Would  it  be 
benevolent  in  God  to  take  from  boy  or  man  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  Mistake  in  the  use  of  fire,  the  con- 
sciousness of  pain  from  such  a  Mistake  ? 

Steam  will  probably  work  as  great  a  change  in 
the  affairs  of  man,  in  domestic,  social,  political  rela- 
tions, as  fire  has  done  hitherto.  But  see  what  havoc 
it  now  makes  of  human  life,  with  such  reckless  men 
in  America  tumultuating  over  land  and  water  so 
heedless  of  the  unchanging  laws  of  God.  What 
pain  we  suffer  in  getting  command  of  this  instru- 
ment! It  has  been  so  with  all  the  forces  of  Nature 
which  man  has  tamed  and  domesticated.  The 
entire  amount  of  suffering  is  always  proportionate 
to  our  lack  of  skill  to  manage  the  instrument ;  the 
more  valuable  the  forces  are  the  longer  it  takes  to 
learn  all  their  powers  and  acquire  the  full  mastery 
34 


398  .    PROYIDEXCE. 

over  them.     It  is   easy  to  tame  a  dove,  hard  to  do- 
mesticate a  boll. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  there  were  three  Magi  in 
Europe,  new  comers,  looking  for  One  born  king  of 
the  world,  —  the  Mariner's  Compass,  Gunpowder^ 
the  Printing  Press,  such  were  their  titles.  What  a 
world  of  mischief  they  wrought,  disturbing  every- 
body,—  coasters,  cross-bowmen,  scribes!  What 
spread  of  mischievous  falsehoods  took  place  ;  what 
slaughter  of  men  ;  what  shipwreck  in  mid  ocean  I 
How  grim  they  looked  !  But  those  Magi  all  three  of 
them  came  out  of  the  eternal  East  of  human  con- 
sciousness ;  following  "  the  star  which  once  stood 
still  over  a  stable,"  they  now  fall  down  before  Demo- 
cracy, the  Desire  of  all  Nations ;  while  Herod  seeks 
that  young  child's  life  to  destroy  him,  they  open 
their  treasuries  and  present  gifts,  their  gold,  frank- 
incense and  myrrh. 

Now  to  get  the  full  mastery  over  the  spirit  of  man, 
to  learn  all  the  complicated  powers  of  mind  and  con- 
science, heart  and  soul,  so  that  mankind  shall  know 
all  their  modes  of  action,  individual  and  social,  as 
the  chemist  and  the  housewife  know  the  powers  and 
modes  of  action  of  fire,  or  as  the  engineer  knows  the 
powers  and  capabilities  of  steam ;  to  provide  these 
various  complicated  and  progressive  faculties  with 
their  proper  harness  and  machinery —  political,  social, 
domestic,  ecclesiastic,  —  for  all  their  manifold  pur- 
poses —  that  is  a  task  far  greater  than  the  taming  of 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   TAIN.  399 

cattle,  the  domestication  of  fire  and  steam ;  far  more 
difficult,  requiring  far  more  time  for  the  work,  and 
demanding  innumerable  experiments,  continued  for 
thousands  of  years,  each  incidentally  subject  to 
failure,  and  the  failure  unavoidably  attended  by  pain 
and  misery  which  can  only  be  removed  by  correcting 
the  Error,  and  mending  the  Mistake.  But  the 
misery  is  all  along  remedial,  is  never  excessive  for 
its  work  and  function.  God  achieves  the  maximum 
of  effect  with  the  minimum  of  means;  the  maxi- 
mum of  welfare  with  the  minimum  of  misery.  The 
whole  amount  of  pain  endured  by  mankind  from 
political,  social,  domestic  and  religious  Mistakes 
and  Errors,  in  the  whole  human  history,  is  of  a 
merciful  and  educational  character;  comes  from 
the  same  cause,  for  the  same  purpose,  as  the  pain  of 
burning  the  finger  when  thrust  into  a  flame,  and 
bears  no  greater  relation  to  the  whole  conscious- 
ness of  mankind  than  the  suffering  of  an  ordinary 
child  in  growing  up  to  maturity. 

It  is  true  the  sufferings  are  often  borne  by  such  as 
had  no  part  in  producing  the  cause  of  suffering  ;  nay, 
who  sought  to  remove  it,  and  in  this  life  their  misery 
is  not  adequately  compensated,  —  but  this  life  is  only 
a  part  of  the  whole  human  duration,  half  a  hundred 
years  out  of  eternity.  The  infinite  Justice  of  God 
—  foreknowing  all,  providing  for  every  thing,  before 
the  world,  or  an  atom  thereof,  was  embarked  on 
its  endless  voyage — must    have   provided    a    com" 


400  PROVIDENCE. 

pensation  somewhere.  This  retribution  to  the  parts 
who  suffer  from  the  Errors  of  the  whole  must  take 
place,  for  in  the  world  created  by  Him  as  perfect 
Cause,  controlled  by  Him  as  perfect  Providence,  it  is 
impossible  that  the  Infinite  God  should  create  from 
an  imperfect  motive,  of  imperfect  material,  for  an 
imperfect  purpose,  or  as  imperfect  means  thereto. 
When  I  cannot  unriddle  the  details  and  see  how 
John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  are  to  be  recompensed  for 
their  early  and  violent  death,  how  a  recompense  is 
to  be  afforded  to  the  poor  daughter  of  want,  w-hom 
the  Errors  of  society  force  unconscious  into  degra- 
dation, into  crime,  and  an  unnatural  grave,  half  im- 
mature in  body  and  w^holly  undeveloped  in  all  the  high 
qualities  of  womanhood,  I  am  ready  to  trust  the 
Infinite  God.  The  warrant  of  ultimate  human  wel- 
fare is  endorsed  on  every  person,  on  each  living  thing, 
in  the  hand  writing  of  the  infinite  God ;  and  though 
I  could  not  trust  the  promise  of  any  of  the  popular 
finite  deities,  I  am  as  sure  of  the  Infinite  God  as  I 
am  that  one  and  one  make  two,  or  that  I  myself 
exist.  The  instinctive  desire  of  human  nature  is 
God's  promise  to  pay ;  Eternity  his  time. 

Then  look  at  the  pain  and  misery  which  come 
from  the  intellectual  Mistakes  and  moral  Errors  of 
mankind;  leave  out  nothing,  diminish  nothing,  look 
St.  Giles'  in  the  face  ;  study  the  sufferings  of  all  the 
Irelands  of  the  earth  ;  confront  all  the  wars  of  the 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  401 

world ;  meet  eye  to  eye  that  most  hideous  of  living 
monsters,  American  Slavery,  the  life  blood  of  three 
million  men  dripping  from  the  democratic  hand;  — 
examine  the  political,  social,  domestic  and  religious 
wretchedness  of  mankind,  does  it  amount  to  Ab- 
solute Evil  ?  Is  there  any  reason  to  think  so  ? 
Surely  not.  Are  present  pain  and  misery  excessive 
for  their  unavoidable  and  merciful  function  ?  Scru- 
tinize with  the  nicest  analysis  of  science,  and  you 
must  confess  that  so  far  as  the  facts  are  known  the 
benevolence  of  Providence  perpetually  appears  ;  and 
so  far  as  the  analogy  reaches  the  same  conclusion 
follows. 

Then  comes  the  scientific  idea  of  the  Infinite  God 
to  fill  up  the  chasms  which  science  leaves  unfilled. 
A  church,  a  family,  a  community,  a  state,  is  each  a 
machine  formed  of  human  materials,  wherewith 
to  achieve  the  religious,  domestic,  social  and  politi- 
cal welfare  of  mankind :  if  the  machine  be  a  poor 
or  ineffective  tool,  is  it  not  plainly  wise  and  merciful, 
nay  just  and  loving,  that  pain  should  warn  us  of  the 
insufficiency  of  the  instrument;  and  repeat  the 
warning  till  we  have  abandoned  it  and  made  a  wiser 
experiment?  As  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal 
forces  in  the  solar  system  are  just  sufficient  to  keep 
each  planet  in  its  orbit,  rythmically  wheeling  about 
the  sun,  with  no  deficiency,  and  no  redundance,  so 
is  the  pain  which  follows  human  Error  but  just 
enough  to  warn  us  of  the  ruin  and  hold  us  back. 
34* 


402  PROVIDENCE. 

The  astronomical  conclusion  is  mathematically  de- 
monstrable from  the  facts  of  observation  and  the 
intuitions  of  consciousness ;  the  human  conclusion  is 
not  yet  inducible  from  facts  of  observation,  but 
deducible  with  most  rigorous  science  from  the  idea 
of  God  as  Infinite,  The  amount  of  misery  is  a 
variable  quantity,  controlled  by  the  conduct  of  man- 
kind; we  diminish  it  just  as  we  learn  and  keep  the 
natural  laws  of  God,  the  original  human  means  He 
has  provided  for  his  divine  purpose. 

So  much  for  the  Evil  which  comes  from  Mistakes 
and  Errors. 


Look  next  at  the  Evil  of  Sin  —  the  pain  and 
misery  which  come  thereof.  A  man  knows  the 
moral  law  of  God;  he  has  learned  it  by  intuition 
^which  anticipates  experience,  or  by  experiment ;  he 
knows  the  true,  the  moral  beautiful,  the  just,  the 
afFectional,  the  holy.  Conscience  is  powerful  enough 
to  say  "  Thou  oughtest  I "  There  it  stops  and 
leaves  us  free  to  obey,  or  disobey.  It  does  not  say, 
"Thou  must!  Thou  shaltl"  It  does  not  hold  us 
bound.  I  know  the  right ;  I  have  the  power  to  do, 
or  to  refuse  to  do  it.  That  is  my  freedom,  my  most 
subtle,  most  dangerous  gift ;  it  is  the  most  precious 
too.  Perhaps  I  shall  not  do  the  right  I  know  I  ought, 
I  will  not  make  the  ideal  of  my  moral  nature 
the    actual    of  my  daily  work.     If  the    moral    or 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  403 

religious  faculty  compelled  me,  I  should  be  its  slave  ; 
not  a  free  man,  only  a  bare  tool  of  the  Almighty. 
If  conscience  compels  me  to  realize  the  Ideal  it 
reveals,  if  the  affections  force  me  to  live  out  my 
ideal  love  for  man,  and  the  soul  constrain  me  to 
acts  of  holiness,  then  I  only  gravitate  to  my  ideal ; 
I  cease  to  be  a  free  Spiritual  individuality.  It  is  not 
I  that  love,  but  the  force  which  acts  through  me, 
foreign,  though  divine.  I  obey  it  voluntarily,  then  the 
will  of  God  becomes  my  personal  act,  I  am  a  con- 
scious co-worker  with  the  Infinite.  I  am  not  a 
moral  fossil,  not  a  moral  animal,  but  a  moral  man. 
I  feel  at  one  with  myself;  all  my  high  faculties  con- 
sent to  the  Ideal  of  my  conscience  and  conform  in 
this  act  of  will.  I  am  self-balanced ;  my  own  cen- 
tre of  gravity  is  my  centre  of  motion  also ;  my  will 
accords  with  the  will  of  God ;  He  and  I  are  at  one  ; 
his  will  my  work.  I  have  the  delight  of  my  freedom 
well  employed. 

If  I  do  not  obey  my  sense  of  right,  straightway 
there  comes  remorse,  I  gnaw  upon  myself.  My 
wrong  disturbs  the  integrity  of  the  universe.  I  am 
not  at  ease.  Conscious  of  violating  my  own  integrity, 
I  feel  ashamed  and  inwardly  tormented  because  the 
ideal  of  my  mind  and  conscience,  heart  and  soul 
is  not  the  actual  of  my  conduct. 

This  is  the  first  subjective  consequence  of  Sin  ;  it 
is  a  form  of  pain  peculiar,  distinct  from  all  other 
modes   of   misery.     I    suppose    every   grown    man 


404  PROVIDENCE. 

knows  what  it  is  by  experience.  I  will  not  speak 
from  observation  of  others,  but  from  conscious- 
ness and  my  own  inward  experience ;  I  know  the 
remorse  which  comes  from  conscious  violation  of  my 
own  integrity,  from  treason  to  myself  and  my  God, 
from  consciousness  of  sacrificing  my  universal  Ideal 
of  the  true,  the  just,  the  moral  beautiful,  the  affec- 
tional,  the  holy,  to  some  private  personal  caprice. 
It  transcends  all  bodily  pain,  all  grief  at  disappointed 
schemes,  all  anguish  which  comes  from  the  sickness; 
yea,  from  the  death  of  dear  ones  prematurely  sent 
away.  To  these  afflictions  I  can  bow  with  "  Thy 
will,  not  mine,  be  done."  But  remorse,  the  pain  of 
Sin  —  that  is  my  work.  This  comes  obviously  to 
warn  us  of  the  ruin  which  lies  before  us ;  for  as  the 
violation  of  the  natural  material  conditions  of  bodily 
life  leads  to  dissolution  of  the  body,  so  the  wilful, 
constant  violation  of  the  natural  conditions  of  spir- 
itual well-being  leads  to  the  destruction  thereof.  So 
the  pain  of  remorse  comes  wisely  and  mercifully  to 
warn  me  from  my  ruin.  It  anticipates  the  outward 
consequence ;  it  comes  as  the  disagreeable  smell,  or 
warning  look,  or  repulsive  taste  of  poison.  A  State 
with  no  statute  against  high  treason,  no  punishment 
therefor,  would  be  exceedingly  imperfect.  Remorse 
is  the  subjective  consequence,  the  penal  retribution  ; 
yea,  the  medicine  and  cure  for  this  high  treason 
against  the  soul  and  against  its  God. 

The  outward  consequences  of  Sin  are  the  same 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  405 

as  those  of  Error  or  JNIistakc,  and  require  no  specific 
description. 

Sin  is  a  wrong  choice^  ;»  preference  of  the  wrong 
way  to  the  right  one.  No  man  loves  the  wrong 
for  its  own^ake,  as  an  end ;  but  as  a  means  for  some 
actual  good  it  is  thought  to  lead  to.  It  is  one  of  the 
incidents  of  our  attempt  to  get  command  over  all 
our  faculties.  In  learning  to  walk,  how  often  we 
stumble ;  we  stammer  in  attempts  to  speak ;  and 
babies  babble  long  before  they  talk.  In  learning  to 
read,  to  write,  how  children  mistake  the  letters,  mis- 
call the  sounds,  miswrite  the  words !  Sin  is  a  corres- 
ponding incident  —  we  learn  self-command  by  exper- 
iments, experiments  which  fail. 

I  think  this  evil  is  rather  underrated.  Consciously 
to  violate  the  integrity  of  your  spirit  is  a  worse  evil 
than  men  seem  to  fancy.  Oh  I  young  man,  expect 
Error  of  yourself,  expect  Mistakes.  Your  eye 
deceives  you,  so  may  your  mind  and  conscience, 
your  heart  and  soul.  Expect  also  analogous  wan- 
derings in  getting  self-command.  But  do  not  tolerate 
any  conscious  violations  of  your  own  integrity ;  the 
experience  of  that  will  torment  you  long,  till  sorrow 
has  washed  the  maiming  brand  out  of  your  memory, 
and  long  years  of  goodness  have  filled  up  the  smart- 
ing scar.  Men  grown  see  the  right,  see  it  plainly  ; 
it  does  not  serve  their  special  turn,  in  trade,  in  poli- 
tics, in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  or  of  power.  They 
trample  their  ideal  under  foot.     The  subjective  pain 


406  PROVIDENCE. 

and  misery  which  comes  thereof,  is  a  just  and  mer- 
ciful contrivance  of  the  eternal  Father. 

There  are  men  of  little  excellence  but  of  great 
conceit,  bigoted  men,  wonted  to  the  machinery  of 
social  and  ecclesiastical  routine,  their  whe^els  deep  in 
the  ruts  of  custom,  omitting  the  weighty  matters  of 
love  to  men  and  God  ;  who  tithe  mint,  anise,  and  cum- 
min, and  thank  God  continually  that  they  are  not 
like  the  publican  ;  to  such  men  a  sin,  a  rousing  pub- 
lic sin,  will  do  good,  and  in  heaven  they  may  thank 
God  for  it.  I  have  known  such  men,  and  have 
thought  if  they  could  commit  some  great  Sin,  they 
might  become  less  sinful.  Jesus  told  a  rich  man, — 
probably  one  wedded  to  w^ealth,  —  to  sell  all  he  had 
and  give  to  the  poor.  There  are  men  so  conceited 
with  their  own  excellence,  and  besotted  with  custom, 
that  I  have  sometimes  thought  the  same  Jesus  would 
tell  them  to  do  some  monstrous  thing  and  get  ashamed 
of  themselves,  and  learn  how  worthless  is  their  self- 
conceit.  But  the  Sin-cure,  even  for  such  a  man,  is 
like  healing  rheumatism  by  burning  the  afflicted 
member  to  the  bone. 

As  we  get  command  over  the  body  only  by  exper- 
iment, learning  to  run,  to  walk,  to  swim  only  by 
trial;  as  by  experiment  we  learn  the  rules  of  expe- 
diency and  of  right,  learning  each  with  many  Mis- 
takes and  Errors,  with  many  a  pain  ;  so  by  experi- 
ments are  we  to  learn  the  proper  uses  of  the  will,  to 
keep  the  law  of  God  when  known.     It  is  only  in 


THE   ECONOxMY    OF   TAIX.  407 

this  way  that  the  individaal,  the  family,  the  commu- 
nity, the  state,  the  world  knows  the  power  of  the 
persona],  or  the  accumulated  will,  and  how  to  keep 
the  law  of  God  when  known.  So  there  are  moral 
experiments  in  all  these  forms,  and  Sins  of  the  Fam- 
ily, the  Community,  the  Nation  and  the  World, 
which  come  as  incidents  of  human  development. 
The  pain  thereof  is  an  unavoidable  consequence  of 
the  transgression  and  a  warning  that  the  trespass  has 
been  wrought.  I  am  glad  it  cost  me  efforts  to  learn 
to  speak,  to  walk,  to  know  the  rule  of  right,  else 
w^ere  I  less  a  man.  The  pains  I  have  felt  from  Errors 
here  are  joyous  pains  at  last.  So  too  am  I  glad 
God  gave  me  power  to  go  astray  even  when  I  know 
the  right ;  glad  that  it  costs  me  hard  efforts  to  learn 
the  uses  of  my  will,  to  subject  the  transient  caprice 
of  personal  desire  to  the  eternal  true,  right,  moral 
beautiful,  lovely  and  holy  of  the  Infinite  God. 
And  though  remorse  has  been  my  keenest  pain  —  I 
know  it  is  my  highest  birthright  which  the  pain 
stands  over  and  guards  as  a  watchful  sentinel.  At 
the  creation,  the  perfect  Cause  knew  all  the  future 
wanderings  of  each  man,  the  Mistakes  of  the  intel- 
lect, the  Errors  of  the  conscience,  the  Sins  of  the 
will;  and  as  the  check  thereto  He  mercifully  ap- 
pointed pain  to  come  to  the  individual,  family,  com- 
munity, the  nation  and  the  world. 

Theologians  often  talk  mythologically  about  Sin, 
as  if  there  was  something  mysterious  in  its  origin, 


408  PFvOVIDEXCE. 

its  cause,  its  process,  its  result  and  final  end.  They 
tell  us  that  as  it  is  a  transgression  against  the  Infinite 
God,  so  it  is  an  infinite  evil,  meaning  an  absolute 
evil,  demanding  an  eternal  punishment.  To  this 
scholastic  folly  it  is  enough  to  reply,  that  if  sin  be 
for  this  reason  an  Absolute  Evil,  then,  the  smallest 
suffering  coming  from  an  Infinite  God  is  an  infinite 
suffering,  and  cancels  the  Sin. 

Sin  is  said  to  be  a  "  fall ; "  yea,  as  the  child's  at- 
tempt to  walk  is  a  stumble.  But  the  child  through 
stumbling  learns  to  walk  erect ;  every  fall  is  a  fall 
upward.  Creeping  is  an  advance  over  stillness, 
stumbling  over  creeping.  In  the  yearling  boy 
the  feet  are  soft  and  tender,  the  legs  feeble,  unable 
to  sustain  the  pulpy  frame.  But  the  instinct  of 
motion  stirs  the  young  master  of  creation  to  press 
forward ;  not  content  with  creeping  he  tries  to  walk, 
he  falls,  and  cries  with  pain.  He  dries  at  length 
his  tears,  and  tries  and  falls  again  ;  again  to  weep. 
But  gradually,  by  trial,  the  limbs  .grow  strong,  the 
eye  steady ;  he  walks  erect ;  he  runs  down  steep 
places;  up  and  down  the  snow-clad  Alps  Hannibal 
marches  through  the  winter,  leading  his  army  of 
men  each  a  stumbling  baby  once. 

Through  weakness  of  mind  and  conscience  we 
may  err  —  the  Error  has  its  check,  and  Nature  has 
the  cure.  No  mistake  is  eternal.  At  first  the  little 
child  pricked  with  a  pin  only  feels  pained  in  his  gen- 
eral consciousness,   not    discriminating  the  special 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   TAIN.  409 

spot  that  smarts.     By  and  by,  instructed  by  experi- 
ence of  pain,  and  so  familiar  with  the  geography  of 
his  little  world  of  flesh,  when  hm't  he  lays  his  hand 
on  the  afflicted   spot  to  localize  the  grief;  at  length 
he  learns  to  scrutinize  the  cause  and  to  apply  the 
cure.     Thus  is  it  with  mankind.     Weakness  of  the 
Affections,  of  the  Soul,  of  the  Will,  is  not  eternal. 
Sin,  with  its  consequent  pain,  is  transient  as  Errors 
and  Mistakes.     Stumblings  of  the  body,  the  mind 
and   conscience,   heart   and   soul,  belong   to   baby- 
hood—  the  early  or  the  late;  incidents   of  our  de- 
velopment.    If  the  first  step  is  a  fall  —  the  step  is 
still  a  progress,  the  faU  is  forward.     In  the  days  of 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  how  poorly  women  spun 
and   wove.      But    the    bungling    craft     of    Sarah, 
Rebecca  and    Rachel  does  not  retard  the  miUs  of 
Manchester,   of  Lowell  and   Lyons.      From   Sarah 
to  Jacquard  wdiat  a  stride  I  millions  of  experiments 
that  failed  strew  all  the  way.     The  mistakes  of  the 
first   farmers    nobody  copies    now ;    but  the   cereal 
grasses  —  which,  as    the    story  tells,   a    mythologic 
queen  first  brought  to  Italy,  all  round  the  temperate 
world  grow  corn  for  daily  bread.     What  have  I  to 
do  with  the  stammering  of  my  fathers  ten  thousand 
years  ago,  when  the  language  had  but  a  hundred 
words  perhaps  ?     Does  it  bar  me  from  eloquence  and 
all  the  nice  distinctions  of  scientific  speech?     Nay 
my  own  blunders  in  babyhood,  boyhood,  manhood  — 
blunders  of  the  body,  of  the  spirit  —  do  they  disturb 
35 


410  PROVIDENCE. 

me  now?  They  are  outgrown  and  half-forgot.  I 
learned  something  by  each  one.  So  is  it  with  Sin, 
the  world's  Sin,  your  Sin  and  mine.  Pain  checks 
all  heedless  motion.  We  learn  the  lesson  but  forget 
the  pain. 

Men  start,  in  these  times,  with  the  idea  of  a  dread- 
ful God,  who  made  men  badly  at  first,  and  then  set 
them  a-going ;  when  they  stumble  He  falls  on 
them,  brings  them  to  the  ground  and  crushes  them 
down  to  endless  hell ;  only  a  few  He  sends  his  Son 
to  help  and  lift  up  —  all  the  rest  lie  there  and  rot  in 
everlasting  woe.  The  pain  of  this  folly  will  one  day 
drive  us  from  the  greatest  Error  of  the  human  race 
—  from  the  belief  in  a  devilish  God  and  an  eternal 
hell.  Our  successors  will  forget  it  as  we  the  follies 
of  our  sires  who  worshipped  stocks  and  stones 
before  they  dreamed  of  Odin  and  of  Thor. 


See  now  the  obvious  use  of  Pain  and  Misery, — 
they  are  plainly  beneficent.  In  the  State,  the  Com- 
munity, the  Family,  the  Church,  the  Individual  Man, 
it  is  not  hard  to  see  their  general  function.  Evil  is 
partial.  There  is  no  Absolute  Evil.  Man  advances 
forever  —  the  perfect  means  goes  forward  to  achieve 
the  perfect  purpose.  Man  oscillates  in  his  march  as 
the  moon  nods  in  her  course.  Pain  marks  the  limit 
of  his  vibration ;  the  variables  of  human  caprice  are 
perpetually  controlled  by  the  constants  of  divine  Prov- 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  411 

idence.  Once  man,  prone  and  mute,  was  the  slave 
of  Nature,  the  absolute  savage,  the  wild  man  of  the 
woods,  overmastered  by  his  elementary  instincts 
which  so  jealously  keep  watch  over  the  individual 
and  the  race  ;  that  comrade  of  the  wolf,  with  many  a 
painful  step  has  journeyed  on  — his  life  a  progress,  his 
march  triumphal.  See  what  the  past  life  of  man- 
kind has  brought  about  —  fixed  habitations,  lan- 
guage, letters,  arts,  science,  literature,  laws,  manners, 
religion.  What  a  growth  from  the  time  when  these 
ten  fingers  were  the  only  tools  of  man,  and  all  his 
mighty  faculties  lay  below  the  horizon  of  his  con- 
sciousness ! 

Look  at  the  evils  of  our  time —  at  political  oppres- 
sion, the  strong  nations  ruling  the  weak  with  iron 
rods,  the  government  exploitering  the  people ;  look 
at  war,  at  social  oppression,  the  strong  laying  their 
burdens  on  the  weak,  in  this  age  of  commercial 
tyranny,  at  despotism  by  the  dollar  which  takes  the 
place  of  the  old  despotism  by  the  sword ;  look  at 
slavery — total  in  Carolina,  partial  in  all  Christen- 
dom ;  domestic  oppression,  woman  exploitered  by 
man  ;  ecclesiastical  oppression  — false  Ideas  of  God, 
of  man,  of  the  relation  between  the  two  form  a 
three-pronged  spear  wherewith  Superstition  goads 
the  race  of  men  in  all  lands.  Look  at  poverty, 
ignorance,  drunkenness,  prostitution,  murder,  theft 
and  every  vice.  What  misery  comes  of  all  these 
evils !     But  they  were  all  foreseen  and  are  provided 


412  PROVIDENCE. 

for  in  the  careful  housekeeping  of  God.  The  past 
history  shows  what  checks  there  always  have  been ; 
what  powers  come  forth  equal  to  each  emergency. 
If  the  world  were  to  end  to-day  —  it  would  seem  a 
failure,  man's  desires  not  satisfied,  the  budding 
promise  of  the  race  not  growing  into  fruit,  or  even 
flower.  But  this  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  his- 
tory of  man  on  earth, 

"  A  thousand  years  scarce  serve  to  form  a  State  ;  " 

many  a  thousand  years  there  must  be  to  form  the 
great  Commonwealth  of  man  where  the  perfect 
State,  Community,  Family  and  Church  shall  have 
their  home. 

The  pain  of  Sin  is  the  pain  of  surgery,  nay,  the 
pain  of  growth.  My  sin-burnt  soul  dreads  the  con- 
suming fire,  its  pain  a  partial  good.  God  provided 
for  it  all,  making  all  things  work  together  for  good. 
My  suffering  shames  me  from  conscious  wrong, 
stings  me  into  efforts  ever  new ;  and  I  flee  from  con- 
suming Sodom  with  a  swifter  flight.  The  loving- 
kindness  of  the  Infinite  Mother  has  provided  also 
for  this  evil,  for  its  cure.  There  is  retribution  every- 
where —  for  I  am  conditioned  by  the  moral  law  of 
God.  In  youth  Passion  tempts  me  to  violate  the 
integrity  of  my  consciousness  with  its  excess,  I  love 
the  pleasure  of  the  flesh  ;  in  manhood  Ambition 
offers  the  more  dangerous  temptation,  I  love  the 
profit  of  selfishness.      K    I  yield,  and   sacrifice   the 


THE   ECONOMY   OF   PAIN.  413 

eternal  Beauty  of  the  true,  the  just,  the  good,  the 
holy  to  the  riot  of  debauch,  or  to  the  calculated  sel- 
fishness of  that  ambition,  there  comes  the  subjective 
consequence,  —  a  sense  of  falseness,  of  shame,  a 
loathing  of  myself,  the  leprous  feeling  that  I  am 
unclean,  the  sleepless  worm  which  gnaws  the  self- 
condemning  heart ;  then  comes  the  outward  evil,  the 
resultant  of  my  wrong,  —  men  band  against  me,  to 
check  my  wicked  deeds.  One  wheel  is  blocked  by 
remorse  ;  and  human  opposition  holds  the  other  fast. 
So  suffering  keeps  my  wrong  in  check.  I  am  thus 
pained  by  every  evil  thing  I  do.  In  the  next  life  I 
hope  to  suffer  till  I  learn  the  mastery  of  myself,  and 
keep  the  conditions  of  my  higher  life.  Through  the 
Red  Sea  of  pain  I  will  march  to  the  promised  land, 
the  divine  Ideal  guiding  from  before,  the  Egyptian 
Actual  urging  from  behind. 

Liability  to  Mistake,  to  Error  and  to  Sin,  is  the 
indispensable  condition  of  human  freedom.  That 
is  not  absolute  but  partial,  relative.  I  know  the  In- 
finite Father  holds  the  line  which  tethers  me;  that 
He  gave  to  man  this  human  nature  in  us  all,  with 
just  the  quality  and  quantity  of  powers  needful  as 
means  to  execute  his  perfect  purpose  and  fulfil  his 
perfect  motive.  I  know  that  He  will  draw  us  back 
and  lead  us  home  at  last,  losing  none  of  his  flock, 
dropping  no  son  of  perdition  by  the  way ;  but  a  great 
ways  off  meeting  his  prodigals  a-coming  home,  or  if 
they  only  will  to  come ;  yea  He  has  means  which 
35* 


414  PROVIDENCE. 

move  their  will  without  constraint,  for  He  is  Infinite 
God,  the  perfect  Cause,  the  perfect  Providence.  The 
world  He  makes,  from  a  perfect  motive,  of  a  perfect 
material,  for  a  perfect  purpose  and  as  a  perfect 
means,  is  the  best  world  which  the  infinite  God 
could  make ;  the  best  of  all  possible  Creators  must 
make  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds  —  with  the  mini- 
mum of  pain  securing  the  maximum  of  bliss. 

Men  often  exaggerate  the  amount  of  Sin  —  its 
quantitative  evil,  not  its  qualitative.  Much  which 
passes  by  this  name  is  Mistake,  or  Error ;  many 
depraved  deeds  are  done  with  little  depravity,  per- 
haps with  none.  I  see  the  evils  which  come  of  con- 
scious or  unconscious  wrong.  Here  are  men  who 
walk  the  streets  self-mutilated  of  limb,  or  feature,  by 
violation  of  the  body's  laws  ;  others  maimed,  still 
worse,  of  limb,  or  feature,  of  the  spirit.  Is  their 
Error,  their  Sin,  an  Absolute  Evil  ?  The  Infinity  of 
God  forbids.  The  INIan-butcher  of  New  Zealand, 
the  Man-stealer  of  New  England  have  not  fallen 
beyond  lifting  up.  One  day  the  better  nature  of 
each  shall  be  wakened.  Even  such  transgression  is 
not  absolute.  The  high  priests  in  Jerusalem  who 
■paid  Judas  his  thirty  pieces,  the  price  of  blood  shed 
by  his  treachery ;  the  low  priests  in  Boston  who 
paid  the  latest  kidnapper  his  fee,  their  praises  and 
their  prayers,  alike  the  price  of  blood  shed  by  his 
treachery,  they  are  under  the  Providence  of  the 
Infinite  Mother  who  at  the  beginning  provided  for 


THE    ECONOMY    OF   PAIN.  415 

all  of  her  children.     All  these  shall  one  day  measure 
their  lives  by  the  golden  rule  of  Love. 

I  see  the  enormous  mass  of  human  misery  which 
comes  of  Mistakes,  Errors,  Shis.  I  see  its  cause ;  I 
know  its  prophecy.  It  tells  me  of  the  vast  powers 
of  man  —  of  the  individual,  and  the  race.  The  power 
of  wrong  is  but  a  mistaken  power  of  right.  The 
wicked  laws  men  make,  come  as  incidents  in  the 
nation's  moral  growth  ;  the  wars,  the  tyrannies,  the 
slaveries  of  old  time  and  modern  days,  are  wan- 
derings from  the  path  we  are  to  take ;  local,  partial, 
only  for  a  time.  The  devastations  wrought  by  mis- 
direction of  the  religious  faculty  reveal  its  power, 
and  foretell  its  normal  triumph  in  time  to  come.  I 
lift  my  eyes  from  the  present  to  the  past.  What  a 
triumphal  progress  has  been  the  march  of  man ! 
Still  is  the  human  face  set  forward.  The  Cannibal  in 
New  Zealand  is  far  above  the  wolf-bred  child  in 
Hindostan  ;  far  before  the  merely  savage  man.  Even 
the  Kidnapper  of  New  England  is  in  advance  of  the 
Cannibal  of  the  Pacific.  *  The  increase  of  crime  in 
all  Europe  since  the  revival  of  letters,  marks  a  step 
forward.  Immortality  is  for  each  man.  Eternity 
stretches  out  before  the  race.  And  in  the  protracted 
childhood  and  great  Errors  of  man  I  foresee  his 
manly  and  majestic  march  in  days  to  come.  God 
bound  the  beasts ;  it  was  in  mercy  to  them.  Only  by 
change  of  body  can  the  adult  animal  advance.  For 
them  there  is  no  progress  of  the  family,  the  tribe  or 


416  PROVIDENCE. 

race.  Little  is  left  for  their  fr-ee  choice ;  so  as  they 
venture  little,  they  win  no  more.  The  God  of  oxen 
provides  for  them  as  Infinite  Providence,  by  his  will, 
not  their  own.  But  the  larger  venture  in  man  is 
liable  to  worse  contingencies  of  ill;  destined  to 
}3roduce  a  higher  resultant  of  bliss. 

Tell  me  of  war,  of  slavery,  of  want,  of  political, 
social,  domestic  oppression ;  tell  me  of  the  grim 
terrors  of  the  Popular  Theology  —  its  religion  a  tor- 
ment, its  immortality  a  curse,  its  deity  a  devil ;  tell 
me  of  Atheism,  its  doubt,  its  denial,  its  despair,  — 
its  Here  and  no  Hereafter,  its  body  without  a  Soul, 
its  world  without  a  God ;  —  tell  me  what  pain  and 
misery  come  ^f  all  these,  and  by  the  greatness  of  the 
aberration  I  measure  the  greatness  of  the  orbit  and 
the  orb ;  for  in  the  centre  of  the  universe,  its  ever 
present  Cause,  its  ever  active  Providence,  I  see  the 
Infinite  God,  I  feel  Him  immanent  in  every  particle 
of  matter,  in  each  atom  of  Spirit ;  and  how  can  I 
fear  ?  The  nodding  of  a  school-boy's  top  is  not  the 
measure  for  the  oscillations  of  a  world. 

The  greatest  present  evil  is  small  compared  to 
v/hat  man  has  already  lived  through  and  so  far  over- 
poweredj  that  most  men  deem  it  blasphem.y  to 
say  they  ever  were.  Absolute  Evil  is  not  in  Error, 
its  misery  is  its  check,  points  to  its  cure,  helps  to  its 
end.  Is  it  in  Sin  ?  Yea,  if  Sin  were  endless  ;  to  act 
wrong,  think  wrong,  feel  wrong,  be  wrong,  —  at  vari- 
ance with  self,  with  Nature  and  with  God  —  that  is 


THE    ECONOMY    OF    PAIN.  417 

misery,  absolute  evil  were  it  endless.  Not  only  is  all 
the  analogy  of  the  universe  against  the  monstrous 
thought,  each  drop  of  Science  drained  olT  from  the 
Vi^orld  of  space  and  time  corroding  and  eating  away 
this  ugly  thing ;  but  the  Idea  of  God's  Infinite  Per- 
fection annihilates  the  boyish  dream.  Suppose  I 
am  the  blackest  of  sinners,  that  as  Cain  I  slew  my 
brother,  as  Iscariot  I  betrayed  him  —  and  such  a 
brother  —  or  as  a  New  England  kidnapper  I  sold 
him  to  be  a  slave  —  and  blackened  with  such  a  sin  I 
come  to  die  —  still  I  am  the  child  of  God,  of  the 
Infinite  God ;  He  foresaw  the  consequences  of  my 
faculties,  of  the  freedom  He  gave  me,  of  the  circum- 
stances which  girt  me  round,  and  do  you  think  He 
knows  not  how  to  bring  me  back,  that  He  has  not 
other  circumstances  in  store  to  waken  other  faculties 
and  lead  me  home,  compensating  my  variable  hate 
with  his  own  Constant  Love ! 

"  Come,  then^  expressive  silence,  muse  his  praise." 


THE    END. 


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